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.

The original text

A immensely popular and influential play about the values and longings of the human heart and spirit, 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

Besides two direct translations in Afrikaans, the play has was also transferred to a South African setting and adapted for a South African audiences by Robert Mohr, as the bilingual (English/Afrikaans]] play Our Town/Ons Dorp.

Direct translations

Translated into Afrikaans by Ulrich Stark with the title Ons Dorp, the text published by DALRO in 1970.

Translated into Afrikaans in 1976 by Roelf Laubscher, also with the title Ons Dorp.

A bilingual adaptation

Mohr had met Wilder in New England and personally allowed him to adapt his play, writing it in a bilingual format and setting it in a Boland setting.

Transferred to a South African setting and adapted for a South African audience. Our Town/Ons Dorp is an adaptation by Robert Mohr in a bilingual version (English and Afrikaans) of Our Town (1938) by American playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder [2] (1897-1975).

Performance history in South Africa

1959: Mohr produced the adapted play in 1959 for the University of Stellenbosch's Arena '59. The cast: André Walters, Emile Aucamp, Roelf Laubscher, Esther van Ryswyk, Marie Smit, Ian Ferguson, Melanie Erasmus, Marcel Frank, Elma Marais, Johan de Plessis, Albert Coetser, Wenda Oosthuizen, Isabel Combrink, Jennifer Alt, Johan Conradie, Charlotte Pretorius, Ernst Eloff, Irma Braasch, Elsabé Bonthuys, Damaris Loubser.

1976: A PACOFS production was directed by Jannie Gildenhuys, starring Pierre Knoesen, Margi Lewis and others.

1985: A production for the Standard Bank National Schools' Festival, Grahamstown was directed by Trevor Hicks.

1988: It was presented by Universiteitsteater Stellenbosch in May 1988 as a tribute to Mohr after his death (in 1984), directed by Esther van Ryswyk, starring Limpie Basson, Marie de Kock and Emile Aucamp who were all involved in the 1959 production. Other cast members were Noël Roos, Marga van Rooy, Marchand de Kok, etc.

Sources

Arena '59 theatre programme 1959.

UTS Theatre programme, 1988.

PACOFS Drama 25 Years, 1963-1988.

Performance history in South Africa

1945: Produced in South Africa in 1945. Directed by Taubie Kushlick for the Johannesburg Reps, starring Enid 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.

1977: The Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival Young 'uns presented Our Town at the Port Elizabeth Opera House on July 3 & 4, 1977. A Themi Ventura Production. Themi Venturas (Producer and Narrator), Hercules Pitsiladis (Doc Gibbs), William O'Driscoll (Joe Crowell). Gary Carter (Howie Newsome), Edna Wright, (Mrs Gibbs), Lorraine Young (Mrs Webb), Patrick Scott (George Gibbs), Julie Belgrove (Rebecca Gibbs), Martina Riebol, (Emily Webb), Mauro Putigna (Wally Webb), Anthony Mundell (Simon Stimson), Emmanuel Fokos (Constable Warren), Gary Carter (Professor Willard), Barry Peart (Mr Webb), Janis Harvey (Mrs Soames), Theo Rijs (Si Crowell), Robert Watkins (Sam Craig), William O'Driscoll (Joe Stoddard), Anthony Mundell, Robert Watkins (Baseball Players), Alexia Michaelides, Amber Cummins, Nadia Putigna, Leigh Ann Shamley, Gene Young, Carol Anne Kelleher (Ladies).

Sources

South African Opinion, 4(2):19, 1947.

Supplement to Die Burger, 22 September 1951.

Our Town Theatre programme, 1977.

Tucker, 1997. 26, 336.

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