There is a character called Stage Manager who acts as a moderator of the story. He describes the town, he unveils characters' future (like saying that Rebecca will be married in 30 years) and even sends actors away from the stage ("This was Professor, and thank you again"). The main characters are the Gibbs family and the Webb family who are neighbours and both have children in the same age (George Gibbs and Emily Webb are 16 and Rebecca Gibbs with Wally Web are 11).
The first scene is when Dr Gibbs meets Joe Crowell, Jr., a guy who brings milk, and has quite a dull conversation with him. Then both, Mrs Gibbs and Mrs Webb are trying to wake their children up, make them eat breakfast and go to school. After showing off the children, the ladies talk about their lives. Followingly, we learn that Mr Webb is a publisher in local newspaper. Quite a strange situation happens when George Gibbs bumps into (to us) an invisible lady. He also asks Emily to help him with some school stuff.
Emily Webb seems to have low self-esteem since she asks her mother if she good looking and pretty.
Apparently, all the grown-up ladies gather together to sing in a local choir adn of course, to gossip a little--a man called Simon Stimson has an affair.
The day in Grover's Corners is at the end and with the words of the Stage Manager:
"That's the end of the First Act, friends. You can go and smoke now, those that smoke".
Sounds like an extremely amusing story!! =D
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, the idea of having a stage manager actually acting on the stage is ingenious..
Imagine they did it in the movies.. imagine there was James Cameron acting in Titanic, saying: "Now, the ship will sink, but no worries my friends, Rose will survive and live happily until she dies peacefully in her 90s" =D
I really like that idea of stage manager too :D, it would be so much fun to have him in Titanic. Actually, I´ve read a book written in almost the same period (The world acording to Garp) and it was Garp himself who was doing the same thing as your stage manager. Maybe the authors got inspired by themselves :D
ReplyDeleteWow... I just read this article http://www.shmoop.com/our-town/stage-manager.html and found out that some people believe that the Stage Manager could be the God!!! Interesting
ReplyDeleteAnytime you have an omniscient character, the question can always be brought up that he is the God character. This is directly addressed in the fascinating recent film "The Mill and the Cross". Also, have you ever seen Lars von Trier's film "Dogma"? If not, go and see it, and tell me if you have ever seen a movie set up in such a way. A lot of this goes back to innovators in theater like Brecht's epic theater and Artaud's theater of cruelty, who wanted you to be distinctly aware that you are sitting in a theater, watching a play, and you are NOT being transported away into some magical escapist land for a few hours.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images