Launching the new 2024-25 “True Grit” season at A Noise Within, co-artistic directors Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott co-direct The Skin of Our Teeth, the 1942 Pulitzer Prize-winning, time-bending comic romp by Thornton Wilder.

With a fantastic ensemble cast and inspired colorful direction, there is so much that works for this production… with the exception of this aging nonsensical script that needs to be promptly retired. Considering how revered this play is and how frequently it is performed in (mainly PWI) theatre companies and schools nationwide to this day, I’m sure my immense dislike for it will come off as outrageous but I’ll definitely explain as we get into this review!

What gives us the internal fortitude, the “grit,” to keep going in the face of adversity? The archetypical American family, Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus (Frederick Stuart and Trisha Miller) live in Excelsior, New Jersey along with their daughter Gladys (Mildred Marie Langford), son Henry (Christian Henley), and saucy family maid, Sabina (Ann Noble). This year, George and Maggie Antrobus are celebrating 5,000 years of marriage — but now the Ice Age is upon them, floods are coming, and war is on the horizon. The story of the family’s journey through time is the story of mankind: surviving disaster… by the skin of their teeth. The Antrobus family weathers heat waves and deep freezes, pestilence, plague, war and depression, but, through it all, they keep moving forward. Also in the cast are A Noise Within favorites Kasey Mahaffy and Cassandra Marie Murphy. The large ensemble includes Anthony Adu, Stella Bullock, Julia Chavez, Jacob Cherry, Yannick Haynes, Amber Liekhus, Veronica McFarlane, David A. Rangel, Landon M. Robinson, Micah Schneider, and Maya Sta. Ana.

There is no question that the cast more than meets the challenge of making a lot of the absurd nonsensical lines work as their commitment level is through the roof, particularly with the main speaking characters played by Ann Noble, Frederick Stuart, Trisha Miller, Mildred Marie Langford, and Christian Henley.

While this play was primarily performed with an all white cast back during its starting days, it has started to hire global majority actors with the two children characters of Gladys and Henry in 1998 with the Public Theatre production and continued again in the 2022 Broadway revival. Thus, this casting pattern continues here but I would argue that this recent push for diversity just for the children characters is weak at best when the image of an “all-American” family should be attained for ALL the family members to be of global majority or at least not make so obvious a distinction that the parents are white and the children are not. I’ll bring up a production still down below of the 2022 production at the Lincoln Center Theater with one example of an production that did embrace this:

The most significant of the main speaking roles belong to the maid, the father, and the mother without a doubt and while, yes, there’s always the saying of “there are no small parts,” it becomes more noticeable when those meatier roles are often played by white actors. While there’s a large ensemble cast of diverse actors, the vast majority of them are relegated to glorified extras with a few having speaking lines other than the family members.

I’ll let it be known that I’ve never understood or liked Bertold Brecht (to which folks can describe this play has similar vibes to) nor had any particular affinity to Thornton Wilder’s other well known works like Our Town so the criticism of this particular piece will come from a very cynical place. Especially when it comes to the state of theatre and where we can push ourselves from here in terms of theatre institutions not constantly relying on materials written half a century ago (with the case of The Skin of Our Teeth, over 80).

There is no question that this play was quite revolutionary for its time and did not conform to so much of what was normally presented in theatre. Its meta breaking the fourth wall nature however only disrupts the flow of the play as it primarily pertains to Sabina in terms of who is doing the breaking. More current plays like The Play That Goes Wrong has upped the meta stakes because everyone in the cast is fully participating and the play embraces that. Here, it doesn’t really serve a purpose other than to be “oooooh how unconventional” which might have been the reaction back then.

The idea of incorporating biblical figures, dinosaurs, the Ice Age, and other quirky elements may seem delightfully absurd but to me it felt like the playwright asked how many random things he could smash together to make this play and declare that this is profound art. There are grand displays of philosophical musings to be found by the end when the family questions the human race’s ability to rebuild after constantly destroying itself, which would have been quite the question to ask in 1942 when the world was in the middle of a war.

At this point though sitting restlessly in the audience in the year of 2024 (the whole production came to be two hours and 20 minutes with intermission), it came off as nonsensical rantings as I desperately hoped for the play to end only to experience a Lord of the Rings film moment when the play goes meta once more by stopping the entire production and having random “stage members” fill the parts. Then we have yet another scene where the play rewinds back to the beginning with the maid cleaning the family room and addressing the audience that the play is now over but that their life’s responsibilities are now up to them.

Look, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of folks who will argue ferociously with me that I missed the entire point of the play or that it still holds great value to this day. But to me, there are simply better plays that either fully embrace being meta or deliver more concise points about human nature.

More importantly, I urge theatre companies, particularly the larger PWI companies like A Noise Within to stop relying on old materials when there are so many current brilliant and talented playwrights, especially of global majority, that are just waiting to be recognized and utilized. Going back to what I said earlier though, the cast performed marvelously and the Elliot’s direction was spot on so at least this play has that going on for it. At least.

WHEN:
Previews Sept. 1 – Sept. 6
Performances Sept. 7 – Sept. 29
• Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.: Sept. 4 ONLY (Preview)
• Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.: Sept. 5 (preview), Sept. 19, Sept. 26 (dark Sept. 12)
• Fridays at 7:30 p.m.: Sept. 6 (preview); Sept. 13*, Sept. 20*, Sept. 27*
• Saturdays at 2 p.m.: Sept. 14, Sept. 21, Sept. 28 (no matinee on Sept. 7)
• Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.: Sept. 7 (Opening Night); Sept. 14, Sept. 21, Sept. 28
• Sundays at 2 p.m.: Sept. 1 (preview), Sept. 8; Sept. 15*, Sept. 22, Sept. 29
^*Post–performance conversations with the artists take place every Friday (except the preview) and on Sunday, Sept. 15.
**A one-hour INsiders Discussion Group will take place prior to the matinee on Sunday, Sept. 8 beginning at 12:30 p.m.

Student matinees are scheduled on select weekdays at 10:30 a.m. Interested educators should email education@anoisewithin.org.

WHERE:
A Noise Within
3352 E Foothill Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91107

TICKETS:
• Tickets start at $51.50 (including fees)
• Student tickets start at $20
• Wednesday, Sept. 4 and Thursday, Sept. 5 (previews): Pay What You Choose starting at $10 (available online beginning at noon the Monday prior to that performance, and at the box office beginning at 2 p.m. on the day of the performance.)
• Discounts available for groups of 10 or more

HOW:
www.anoisewithin.org
(626) 356-3100