A couple thoughts on Thornton Wilder

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I read Our Town in high school (sophomore year?) and my class also watched (I think) the classic version starring Hal Holbrook. I don’t remember much about it now other than how it made me feel and how much I liked it.

Just a few years ago I read The Skin of Our Teeth which has some of the same modernist tendencies but really could not be any more different from Our Town (I think; cf previous paragraph). It’s a weird little domestic comedy that covers all of human history.

Then, just two years ago, I read his novel The Bridge over San Luis Rey because someone compared Just Julie’s Fine to it. Again. Decidedly modern and so unlike the other two.

And now I’ve watched a production of The Matchmaker.

I don’t usually write about plays I see and expecially not school plays as writing about minors seems untoward to do behind their backs and they are not my intended audience so—

I’ll just say this was perhaps the most challenging script I’ve seen them take on and one of the best scripts I’ve seen them take on. I think the best under the current theater teacher. And some of the best acting work I’ve seen too. I shan’t say more than that.

What I want to talk about is the play.

I recently saw Hello, Dolly! for the first time but I was not prepared for how similar it would be to it’s ur-text. Very similar, in fact. That said, the musical added two characters and sanded down the original’s sharp political edges. Because this play has bite! Oo, baby! Talk capitalism to me, Wilder!

Anyway. Now I’ve seen or read Wilder’s four best-remembered work and I gotta say:

He’s terrific.

And, if you’re local, there’re three shows left.