After a year which saw much of their 2020 cancelled, Queensland Theatre are heading into 2021 offering a mix of new works and highlights of what was scheduled to be performed this year. One of these, Our Town, has this week had its cast announced. Described by Artistic Director Lee Lewis as “an uplifting and life-affirming experience to start afresh in 2021”, Our Town will be performed in the Billie Brown Theatre from 30 January 2021 until 27 February 2021.
Directed by Ms Lewis, Our Town has a 14-member cast including Jimi Bani (Stage Manager), Colin Smith (Dr Gibbs), Libby Munro (Mrs Gibbs), Hugh Parker (Mr Webb), Roxanne McDonald (Mrs Soames), Andrew Buchanan (Professor Willard), and Jayden Popik (George Gibbs). These eight will be joined by four actors making their Queensland theatre debut – Amy Lehpamer (Mrs Webb), Lucy Heathcote (Emily Webb), Egan Sun-Bi (Howie Newsome) and Silvan Rus (Constable Warren) – and two cast members yet to be confirmed.
Penned by Thornton Wilder, Our Town sets out offer “a story so simple and a heart so warm”, that it “celebrates all that is precious in life”. Life in a small town. Babies are born. Children go to school, and play and dream. People grow up, fall in love, get married, hold down a job, and grow old. The same surnames last down through the years, but the faces change. There are inevitable tragedies and triumphant joys.
As we come to know the people in this town, we see how the threads of their everyday lives are gently woven into the rich and complex, funny and heartbreaking fabric that is community. And for all its simplicity, this play reveals a great truth at its heart: deep meaning and startling value are in every moment of existence. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Pulitzer Prize-winning Our Town has long been America’s most performed play. It reminds us to look to the future with hope, to see the beauty in the everyday world and to cherish the people we love.
Season ticket packages for Queensland Theatre’s entire 2021 season and single tickets for just Our Town are now on-sale through Queensland Theatre’s website and booking line (1800 355 528).
People were incredibly worried about fascism and what was happening to the world and the values that they’d cherished so much. He wrote this play to remind them of what was deeply important, creating the story about this little country town called Grover’s Corners. And it’s a town we all recognize. I grew up in a country town, probably a little bit bigger than Grover’s Corners, but still had the same things and similar people.
The story focuses on two families living next door to each other, the Gibbs and the Webbs. The young son, George Gibbs, and the young daughter, Emily Webb, fall in love and marry. We follow the town over the course of about 10 years and experience all the changes and the sadness that happens. The end of the play is magic. Thornton Wilder was an incredible form breaker in his time.
“I think Our Town is a play written for difficult times, to remind us about what matters. And that’s why my heart went straight there when I thought about the possibility of a 2021 Season.
We need to see great big stories that fill us with inspiration. We need to have our artists back at work, breathing life into the imagination. We need to talk to friends about the play we all saw last night and disagree with them about what it really meant. We need the buzz of a foyer. We need our culture to come back to life, and we are making this happen
Lee Lewis – Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre & Director on Our Town
