Our Town
Our Town is a play by American playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder [1] (1897-1975). Immensely popular play about life in a small town, one of the most frequently staged American plays.
Contents
The original text
It opened on January 22, 1938 at the McCarter Theater, Princeton, New Jersey, produced and directed by Jed Harris. The play moved to New York, where it opened at the Henry Miller Theater on February 4, 1938.
Translations and adaptations
Translated by Ulrich Stark into Afrikaans with the title Ons Dorp, DALRO, 1970. This version was presented by Teater Aktief in 1988, directed by Danie Burger.
Translated by Roelf Laubscher into Afrikaans with the title Ons Dorp, 1976.
See also Robert Mohr's adaptation Our Town/Ons Dorp.
Performance history in South Africa
1945: Produced in South Africa in 1945. Directed by Taubie Kushlick for the Johannesburg Reps, starringEnid Grünewald,
1947: Presented by the UCT Speech-Training Department, produced by Joyce Burch in the Little Theatre, March 1947. The cast: Michael Watermeyer, Zea Lurie, Ashné Kretzmar, Joyce Pienaar.
1951: Ons Dorp was presented by K.A.T. in the Labia Theatre in Cape Town, opening 25 September, directed by Hermien Dommisse starring Enone van den Bergh. The name of the translator in not known.
1960: Our Town 1960 with André Huguenet.
1976: Danny Keogh starred in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, together with Diane Wilson and Michael McCabe for PACT at the Alexander in 1976. It was directed by John Hussey.
Sources
South African Opinion, 4(2):19, 1947.
Supplement to Die Burger, 22 September 1951.
Tucker, 1997. 26, 336.
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