Ludovica Chiovini and Ruby Tolnai in The Skin of Our Teeth
You should see the groundbreaking comedy classic The Skin of Our Teeth at Augustana College. I’ll explain why in a moment, while also trying not to ruin your experience with too many details. But just by reviewing director Jeff Coussens' perfectly cast production, I will be spoiling it a bit.
You see, before attending any show, I don’t do any advance research. I even avoid glancing at the cast list. I relish discovering everything as it unfolds. Yet it’s nearly impossible to write a review giving the reader that same luxury. So here I sit, with both a laptop and a lap cat, knowing that I'll inevitably reveal some of the magic. Sorry. But trust me – there’s so much more that I won't be saying. Even today, more than 80 years after the comedy first wowed audiences and critics, this is not your typical play.
Thornton Wilder won a 1943 Pulitzer Prize for The Skin of Our Teeth. He also received that award in 1938 for his other storied, oft-produced classic, Our Town. The earlier play had been criticized, by some, for romanticizing life, and so, perhaps in response, he packed this one – two-and-a-half hours long, two intermissions – with conflict and strife. And a lot of complaining. Which makes it more true to life, to my notion.
Our Town is populated with archetypes, and so, too, is The Skin of Our Teeth. They both have a stage-manager character, the one here played by DJ Roberts, who occasionally breaks into the action. (Maybe it’s meant to be the same Stage Manager from Wilder's 1938 work?) Also interrupting the flow is the vivacious, loquacious Ludovica Chiovini, who both plays herself – the performer in the show we're watching – and Sabina, who is sometimes a maid, and sometimes a welcome distraction for central figure George Antrobus (the extraordinarily energetic Noah Johnson). As the play starts, George is offstage inventing such basic necessities as the written word, while his wife and children wait anxiously in their sedate, suburban New Jersey home for his safe return, hopefully with food. It’s a cold, savage, prehistoric world out there. (Yes: prehistoric New Jersey. Add now-extinct beasts, characters from scripture, ancient Greek history, and myth, and you’ll get the gist of the wacky anachronistic mélange parading through the place.)
George's wife Maggie (Sora Richter), with royal bearing and crisp consonants, really runs the household, and has enough brains and energy to do the inventing, too, were she given the chance. However, in the first act, she seems mostly concerned with how Sabina is carrying out her duties, and whether the raucous children Gladys (Maya Haynes) and Henry (Elijah Morton) will meet with George’s approval when he arrives. This is the 1940s, after all. Sort of.
For the next act, the crew breaks down and reassembles the clever set (designed by the relentlessly talented Mike Turczynski) into a depiction of part of the Atlantic City boardwalk, boasting a lively crowd, rolling chairs (they exist; I’ve ridden in them), a bingo parlor, and the shopfront – complete with kitschy neon sign – of a jaded, doom-prophesying Fortune Teller. In this role, Kallik Ewen owns the stage, and is a joy to watch. And then there’s an extinction-level event, as the latter-day Cassandra had warned everyone there would be. It doesn’t seem fair, and it’s not. Life does eventually go on, back in the Antrobus house, in Wilder's third act. Though the play remains a broad comedy, this last part was the hardest for me to watch … . But I’ve already said too much. I’ll wager you’ll have feelings about this show.
Along with Roberts and Ewen, the entertaining ensemble includes Basil Alexander, Adele Bartlein, Lexi Horn, Leo Kopplin, Lex Mikulski, Jack Pawlak, Addon Rogers, Ruby Tolnai, and Alex Wohlers. They take on a variety of roles throughout, and this is a good place to applaud costume designer Becki Arnold and assistant costume designer and wardrobe head Arler Ohlmiller for all the varied garb. I also tip my cap to projection designer, film-aspect manager, and deck hand Rylon Hall, whom I believe put together the professional-looking sepia-toned newsreels, and Kai Swanson, who voices the quintessential Mid-Atlantic-inflected newsreel narrator.
I’ve seen a lot of shows on the lovely Brunner stage. This go-round, I was happy to see faces new to me, as well as performers I’ve enjoyed here before – particularly Johnson and Richter, who were wonderful as very different Southern siblings in 2022’s Tartuffe. Unfortunately, this production’s biggest weaknesses on Thursday’s opening night were insufficient enunciation and frequent low volume. The incomprehensibility was exacerbated by some performers' too-rapid speech, and I missed a lot of dialogue.
However, these deficiencies may have improved, and your ears may be sharper than mine. Augustana’s theatre department hasn’t disappointed me yet, and I’m so glad they put up their creatively staged version of this masterpiece of a script. There are only two performances left. You know what to do.
The Skin of Our Teeth runs at Augustana College's Brunner Theatre Center (3750 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island IL) through May 10, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)794-7306 and visiting Augustana.edu/arts/ticket-office.
