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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"The end of this play isn't written yet.", February 7, 2005
This review is from: The Skin of Our Teeth: A Play (Perennial Classics) (Paperback)
Ignoring the conventions of time, this playful "message play" follows one family from the days of the glaciers and dinosaurs to a post-apocalyptic, modern world. George Antrobus, the inventor of the wheel, and Maggie, his wife, the inventor of the apron, have two children, Gladys and Henry (whose previous name was Cain). The bossy father, domestic and subservient mother, aggressive and dangerous son, and innocent daughter interact, often humorously, onstage and are also seen through the viewpoint of Sabina, the flirtatious maid. As the play progresses through the eras, Wilder raises questions about civilization and values. George, by Act II, is convinced that the world is made for pleasure and power, but by the final act, after a world cataclysm, the family confronts what is truly important in their lives.
A pet dinosaur and a wooly mammoth, the Boardwalk of New Jersey and the Miss America contest, the fraternal Order of Mammals (of which George is President), and the attempted seduction of George and his fellow Mammals by predatory women all add to the visual appeal of this production. Though the play pretends to be traditional in its dramatic structure, it takes liberties with the audience as the various actors step out of character to address the audience, as does the director. At one point Sabina refuses to play a scene, summarizing it for the audience as the director and George plead with her.
First produced in 1942, the play reflects Wilder's fear that the war then engulfing the world might truly be a war for the future of civilization. His conclusion, which highlights the values of western philosophers, such as Spinoza, Aristotle, and Plato, also reflects his religious beliefs and his belief in the enduring values of (western) literature. "We've come a long way--we're learning," he says, hopefully, but he also reminds us that "the end of this play isn't written yet." Creative and original in its day, the play represents a major moment in American theater. Less innovative now, more than sixty years later, it still offers food for thought in its reminder of enduring values and its questions about what we value and would save from our own lives in a similar cataclysm. Mary Whipple
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Groundbreaking Classic: A Comic Collage Of Catastrophe And Endurance, September 29, 2007
This review is from: The Skin of Our Teeth: A Play (Perennial Classics) (Paperback)
Ecological disaster? Pervasive human folly? World War? The end of the world itself? According to Thornton Wilder, we've been there and done that so many times that we should have learned a thing or two about it by now. First performed in the darkest days of World War II, THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH is a highly theatrical, bizarrely comic take on the disasters that befall the human race--and a commentary on the durability of the human spirit.
The play presents us with the perfect American family: father, mother, son, daughter, and a housemaid, all living in middleclass comfort in Excelsior, New Jersey. They dress in modern attire, more or less; they speak in modern terms, more or less; and the world in which they live contains such modern details as telegrams and such. But it is also the middle of the prehistoric ice-age and the glaciers are moving in to crush them all. The end of the world is at hand!
Ice age? Yes indeed, and as the play progresses Thornton Wilder drags the Antrobus family through one clamity after another. From ice to infidelity and from infidelity to Noah's flood--it's one damned thing after another, right up to and including global war. There are so many disasters that the actors playing the roles begin to question the whole thing, arguing with each other about the merits of the play, what it means, whether or not it is worth performing--and then suddenly, to their horror, face their own disaster when a large portion of the cast is rushed to the hospital due to food poisoning! Can the cast finish the performance? Can mankind survive?
In its own time THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH broke so much new theatrical ground that it easily walked off with the Pulitzer Prize for Drama: it is highly mannered, extremely theatrical, proto-absurdist, and borrows from such diverse sources as the Bible and James Joyce to create a wildly spinning construct that seems constantly on the verge of flying apart--but never actually does. And it always seems to enjoy a resurgence in popularity whenever the world faces a prolonged period of bad news. Because, as Wilder points out, we've actually done all this before many, many times. And we're still here to tell the tale.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Skin of Our Teeth, March 6, 2010
This review is from: The Skin of Our Teeth: A Play (Perennial Classics) (Paperback)
I am highly pleased with this product, it arrived in time and in wonderful condition! Thanks so much!
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