The Open Air Theatre Regents Park stages an annual season of four major productions and one of these usually arrives from 'left field'.

It is a work that carries a risk of not quite resonating with the wide demographic range of regular theatregoers to the theatre.

Our Town, which opens the 2019 season at the Open Air Theatre, is just such a production.

A metatheatrical three-act play

Our Town is a 1938 metatheatrical three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder.

The word metatheatrical itself got me thinking (and Googling) before understanding that it is a play which challenges theatre's claim to be simply realistic -- to be nothing but a mirror in which we view the actions and sufferings of characters like ourselves, suspending our disbelief in their reality.

And the Open Air Theatre strictly adheres to this with the play performed within the theatre staging it and without a set on a mostly bare stage.

The cast, who are not discernibly costumed, sit around until called upon to perform and then do so without props.

There is an almost total reliance on the actors to create everything we see, hear and feel.

The main character is the stage manager of the theatre (in the case the Open Air Theatre) who speaks directly to us, links the storylines and also plays a couple of roles.

Wilder is quoted as saying that Our Town "should be performed without sentimentality or ponderousness – simply, dryly and sincerely."

And while Home Town is hugely popular in the USA, it is perhaps no surprise that the play is rarely revived in the UK.

And so might one be tempted to give this one a miss?

The risk is so well worth it

No! Trust me and take the risk. Our Town is a gently yet greatly affecting and highly rewarding theatrical experience.

It tells the story of the fictional small town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, between 1901 and 1913 – and the everyday lives (and deaths) of its citizens.

As the play starts, and without fuss, the Stage Manager (a wonderfully expressive Laura Rogers) talks us through Grover's Corners and its townsfolk.

From a non-descript stage she creates for us the whole town and its surrounds and defines the character of its residents.

This is such a pivotal role and Rogers captures us completely from the outset.

From then on we are led willingly through every subsequent scene and performance.

​The essence and the joy

That very little happens during the play's three scenes is the essence and indeed the joy of Our Town.

We warm to each of the Grover's Corners townsfolk, relate to their everyday lives and respond to the joys they embrace and the sorrows that befall them between 1901 and 1913.

Out Town has an 18 strong cast who can all share in the glow of this evening, and in knowing they have made the gamble pay off big time.

Our Town runs at the Open Air Theatre Regent's Park until 8 June 2019.

The next production : AMidsummer Night's Dream runs from 28 June to 27 July 2019.

See also : AllWays Traveller to the Open Air Theatre : https://www.allwaystraveller.com/allways-features-home/the-open-air-regent-s-park-is-a-theatrical-must

Useful links

​ www.openairtheatre.com