'SKIN OF OUR TEETH' HAS BITE
By Charles Berman
For the first three weekends in March, the Ti-Ahwaga Theater in Owego will be staging The Skin of Our Teeth. The critically-acclaimed 1942 Thornton Wilder play won the Pulitzer Prize, but is notoriously difficult to find onstage today.
Once you’ve learned that a play takes place in Atlantic City, New Jersey at the dawn of a new Ice Age and features both Greek muses and a character who invented the wheel, you know that The Skin of Our Teeth isn’t likely to reward you with a particularly staid and traditional piece of theatre. Wilder is probably best known today for having written the play Our Town, and the short novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey. These were already known at the time, and weren’t likely to have built Wilder a reputation for unimaginative traditionalism. Even still, The Skin of Our Teeth stunned audiences with its originality, with Time magazine calling it “Hellzapoppin’ with brains,” and many comparing it to James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake (though a little easier to comprehend).
Briefly put, it’s an allegorical comedy about what it means to survive the many dangers and catastrophes that humanity has weathered, “by the skin of our teeth.” And for director – and retired teacher - Diane Arbes, the piece is an immediate and relevant one for our own place and time - and one whose originality and appeal is as fresh as when it first appeared on stage over 70 years ago.
“I would describe it initially as a comedy that’s satirical, that’s burlesque, that’s slapstick in some cases, and that is in some ways whimsical but at the same time prophetic,” muses Arbes. “I think that it is a very optimistic play. It talks about humanity’s resilience and the power of their hopefulness, and their willingness to surmount all the odds, all the challenges that life presents. And I think that we’re at a time when, philosophically, we’re facing some of those same challenges that Thornton Wilder talked about.”
She continues, “In Owego and in the Southern Tier we survived a horrible flood. And we did it valiantly and proudly. I think every day we are challenged by the unknown of terrorism, war, the unknown in general. And yet we are a resilient population of humans. We’re just meant to survive. I think that when Thornton Wilder creates the setting in Act I and the fear of the glacier coming - even though it’s improbable with the ecological issues today and the melting of the caps - I think that there’s still an element of this unknown.”
Appropriately for such an original and out-of-the-ordinary piece, Arbes has decided to take a decidedly non-traditional course in her direction of the play. “Our costumes are exaggeratedly fun,” she explains. “Our set is really just suggestive of realism, as it goes from a home during the ice age to the boardwalk in Act II. The Atlantic City boardwalk in Act III is back at the home after a seven-year war. We have really deviated from the norm. So the family looks a little hyperbolized.”
She elucidates: “When I’m directing this, I’m thinking of characters from Saturday Night Live. I’m thinking about the political climate in Act II as Mr. Androbus plays the President of Humans. I’m thinking about Lilly Tomlin when I’m thinking about Gladys the daughter. I’m asking Dad to play Everyman. Every father - and then also kind of full of himself because he is the inventor of the wheel, the ABC’s, the multiplication tables. So that element of exaggeration and hyperbole are very much a part of the vision for this production.”
That father, George Androbus, is played by Seth Vaughn, and his wife Maggie of 5,000 is played by Peggy Medina. Their children Gladys and Henry will be played by Francesca Decker and Shane Smith. The cast also includes a maid played by Talia Saraceno and a set of 6-10 people who play a series of miscellaneous characters, from philosophers to fortune tellers to wooly mammoths and dinosaurs.
It’s a talented cast, and for Arbes, it’s one that carries a special meaning - not just because some of its members are her former students, but because of the promise that the young people in the cast represent. As she puts it, “The bottom line is for us at Ti-Ahwaga [to] know that the future of our theater is about kids, and about reaching out to the children and the teenagers in our community.”
She goes on, “These are kids playing significant roles and doing it superbly and professionally. I’m really proud that I have students that are now adults - doctors, engineers - that are in the show currently as adults who have come back to the area. Two particularly, Francesca Decker and Peggy Medina. For me, as a retired teacher, that’s a real thrill and real privilege.”
The Skin of Our Teeth will be performed by the Ti-Ahwaga Community Players at 42 Delphine Street in Owego, every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from March 3rd-19th. Friday and Saturday performances at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm. Tickets $20 general public, $18 for students and senior citizens. Thanks to the Floyd Hooker Foundation, there will be two additional shows on March 2nd and 9th, which will be free to Tioga County Schools. The production is assistant directed by Dr. Keith Nichols and produced by Sonny DeWitt. Tickets can be purchased at tiahwaga.com or by calling (607) 687-2130.
