A noted playwright already for Our Town in 1938, Thornton Wilder went off the rails for his 1942 play The Skin of Our Teeth. Centered on the Antrobus family, Wilder crossed millennia, broke the fourth wall and posited religious parallels. Undermain opened the play last week and under director Stefan Novinski, the theater delivered on an experience that was both seismic and chaotic and felt as modern to today’s dialogue as ever. But also, if Schitt’s Creek and Turner Classic Movies had a baby, it would be Undermain’s The Skin of Our Teeth.
The Antrobus family consists of George and Maggie as the parents and Henry and Gladys as their offspring. The dynamics of the family are overlapping and extravagant in dialogue and interaction. Add into the mix their housekeeper Sabina, a spitfire who vacillates on quitting the job. They all exist in their own New Jersey world as they wait upon news of a wall of ice heading their way.
Later they are in threat of a storm, George, who invented the wheel, the alphabet and multiplication, becomes President of a fraternal order and a rebellion leads to war. All of this spans over the course of thousands of years. An absurdist piece that’s part kitchen-sink, a lot of allegory and a stunning masterpiece by director Stefan Novinski and the powerful performances by its cast.
Jim Jorgenson as George Antrobus served a patriarchal gravitas with frantic desperation. A blustery performance, Jorgenson’s knack for a comical undertone to active drama was strongly balanced. As his wife Maggie, Emly Gray countered with a more grounded portrayal that radiated both a maternal weariness and tolerance of her family. Still, she brought a certain dramatic grandiose to her character that was an added delight.
Mac Welch and Sienna Castaneda Abbott, as Henry and Gladys Antrobus, inserted entirely different personalities into the mix. Henry is perpetually rebellious and brooding. Welch was spot-on with capturing the character’s disdain and frustration. Gladys is every bit Daddy’s little girl who worries at any sign of disappointing him. Abbott brought a charming youth to the character but revealed deeper layers as the show progressed.
Sabina, the family’s maid, who constantly breaks the fourth wall also served somewhat as the perplexed voice of the audience as well as actor Christina Cranshaw’s own exasperation. Sabina begins as the maid who later evolves into a beauty queen and then a revolutionary. In shifting different modes, Cranshaw’s performance was facile from her beginning narration to seamlessly moving in and out of each scene. Her delivery recalled the vampy and plucky female film actors of the 40s which worked ideally for her maid and beauty queen roles and then she moved into a more austere portrayal in the show’s final act.
The ensemble included Seth Magill, Anastasia Munoz, Rhonda Boutte and Jett Dinh who all succeeded in their varied roles. Magill was on point with his vintage radio voice and Boutte’s hard-boiled fortune teller added a whole other unnatural vibe to Skin.
Novinski orchestrated the play with a deft hand. The irony of its chaos was perhaps the magic here as characters and sets all functioned with ease. The Antrobus living room was central to Donna Marquet’s design but the clever depiction of houses and exteriors were engaging. Mixed with Steve Woods lighting and Paul Semrad’s sound, the three managed an immersion into the Antrobus family’s lives. Vermont Horner’s puppetry and props design added insane but effective visual elements to the show.
There was much to analyze in Skin as well. Themes here could be applied to today’s political arenas, climate change and human survival amid upheaval. But also, existential motifs of art and family drive the show’s tones as well. Maybe Wilder was showing us how humanity is really just one disaster after another that we contend with and Undermain’s production held up the mirror to all that in this outstanding production.
The show runs through March 8.
–Rich Lopez