Just hanging on through the ages Just hanging on through the ages (January 21, 2005)

Family survives flood, wars and more

By Katie Vaughn

It's quite an undertaking to document the entire human experience in a play, but Pear Avenue Theatre does just that in its latest production, Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth."

The play, which won Wilder his third Pulitzer Prize in 1943, juxtaposes biblical characters such as Adam and Eve with modern society. The Antrobus family endures the Ice Age, Great Flood, wars and depressions, and helps the human race rebuild after each disaster. Their lives ultimately suggest that mankind always has been and will be on the verge of catastrophe due to natural disasters and its inability to learn from its mistakes.

"It speaks of survival as the most important thing for human beings to deal with," said director William Kenney. "The Antrobus family has survived through the years, so in all of these incidents, man has survived."

The family is led by Mr. Antrobus (Dan Roach), credited with inventing the wheel and beer-brewing process and protecting the works of Shakespeare. Rounding out the group is his wife of 5,000 years (Lise Wiseman), plus their children Henry and Gladys (John Sousa and Kathleen Brower) and their vampy maid Sabina (Wendy Howard-Benham).

Rejecting conventional notions of time, the characters live in a 1942 New Jersey suburb. They are at once individual products of their environment as well as characterizations of Adam, Eve, Cain and others. And they're also the quintessential "everyman" and "everyfamily," making some of their struggles familiar to all people.

"Their behaviors, good and bad, reflect on all families, at least in 1942 when it was written," Kenney said.

Wilder uses the characters, especially Sabina, to address the audience directly, too. The maid explains the play to audiences as well as discourages and confuses them.

"She's kind of the link to the audience," Kenney said. "The audience will go 'Wow, what is going on here?' and Sabina breaks through and says 'Don't bother.' Or she relates to the audience and takes them through the tough parts."

Despite these atypical theatrics, Kenney said his biggest challenge in putting on this modern classic was to avoid going for the easy laughs and making caricatures of the characters.

"It's a comedy, but it has serious overtones," he said. "The most important thing I wanted to do was avoid outlandish farce and make the characters as believable as possible."

Kenney said the character of Mr. Antrobus is particularly multidimensional in that the play reveals he is not a perfect hero. For instance, he has been cowardly at times and has had an affair with the maid.

"Mr. Antrobus has all the necessary characteristics that allow him to be the head of the family and steer it," Kenney said. "But we see that he's a human being with flaws and shortcomings."

As the play is set in the '40s, Kenney said the Pear has approached it as a period piece and is as historically accurate as possible with costumes and hairstyles. The set, however, is nonrepresentational and includes newspaper headlines such as "Great Flood Covers Earth" and "War is Over" blown up to three feet tall and an image of Leonardo da Vinci's famed "Vitruvian Man" drawing.

While this combination of unusual theatrical elements may make potential audiences unsure of what to expect, Kenney offers a prediction.

"I expect that they'll have a jolly good time enjoying what this family goes through. This is a pretty wild play."

E-mail Katie Vaughn at mvvoicearts@yahoo.com
Information

What: "The Sking of Our Teeth," presented by the Pear Avenue Theatre. Written by Thornton Wilder. Where: 1220 Pear Ave., Unit K, Mountain View When: Jan. 21 through Feb. 6 Cost: $25 for opening gala on Jan. 21. $20 on Fridays and Saturdays, $15 on Thursdays and Sundays Call: 254-1148 or visit www.thepear.org.

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