Our Town at Rose Theatre

Welsh National Theatre shares its wonderful take on Thornton Wilder’s seminal play.

Our Town is an early 1900s small town slice-of-life, set in New Hampshire, USA. It’s split into three acts – daily life, love and marriage, death and eternity – and celebrates the importance of everyday people and everyday moments. The key difference from other versions is that this one is filled with melodious Welsh accents instead of American.

Grovers Corners is a small, everyone-knows-each-other kind of town. But it’s full of life. Michael Sheen is the Stage Manager, a narrator who introduces the characters in the town and helps tell their stories. Most notably, we meet the Gibbs and the Webb families, whose children, George and Emily, fall in love with each other.

It’s a lovely play. The staging is a little bit magical. The lighting design is simple but rich, used to great effect across the whole space of the Rose Theatre, to create a sunset, to create stars, to be snuffed out at the click of a finger.

Alongside the lighting and the narrator, the choreography plays a large part in telling the story. It’s incredibly well put together with nothing more than the performers and a few basic props creating enchanting scenes. Some simple wood planks become tables, counters, doors, rail tracks and more as the cast flit around the stage in a mesmerising show of daily life.

Sheen is very much the lynchpin. Without him, the production would still be good, but his command over the stage turns the night into a real treat. Even when merely standing quietly and watching other action, the actor’s presence is captivating.

Our Town is a beautiful celebration of life and a chance to see Michael Sheen at his best. It’s very much an all-rounder with depth and humour and joy and sorrow, presented in perhaps the best possible way.