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Our Town
by Thorton Wilder
Set in 1901 in
Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, where the Gibbses and the Webbs are
neighbors. During their childhood George Gibbs and Emily Webb are playmates
and their lives are inextricably woven together as neighbors' lives
are likely to be. But as they grow older they pass into a state of romantic
(and embarrassing) interest in one another. George proposes to Emily
in the drug store over an ice cream soda, and they are married with
all the good folks of Grover's Corners in attendance. But George and
Emily's happiness is short-lived. Emily dies in childbirth and is buried
in the town's cemetery on a rainy, dreary day. There she is reunited
with those friends and neighbors who have died before her, and who help
her acclimate herself to her new existence. In one of the most vital
scenes in modern theatre, the peace and quiet of death, which can never
be understood by the living, is portrayed.
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