The Suburban Family That Outlived Every Apocalypse

"The Skin of Our Teeth" at Artists Repertory Theatre makes endless suffering look like a lot of fun.

By Russell Hausfeld

Thornton Wilder's 1943 Pulitzer-winner is a farcical, fourth-wall-breaking rumination on the human will to rebuild within a seemingly endless cycle of suffering.

Each character represents a key aspect of humanity—whether it be Mrs. Antrobus (Linda Alper) penning the "secrets that only women know" and tossing it into the ocean, or her son Henry (Shawn Lee) representing the roots of anger and changing his name from Cain after killing his brother with a rock. The Antrobus family personifies the many faces that contribute to our species' historic succession of learning, building, destroying, then rebuilding. All of this staged around a mid-century suburban home that is coated in ice, then flooded with water and finally ravaged by war.

If all of this sounds a tad convoluted, that's because it is. The actors (particularly Sara Hennessy's sassy character, Sabina) hilariously break character throughout the play to let the audience know that they think so too. But, with three phenomenal acts and a runtime of almost two hours and 40 minutes, the initially confusing dynamics of the production make total sense by the end.

Watch the Antrobus family struggle through catastrophes that have rocked the human race and continually push on, miraculously saved each time by the skin of their teeth.

GO: The Skin of Our Teeth is at Artist's Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., 503-241-1278. 7:30 pm Wednesday-Saturday; 2 and 7:30 pm Sunday, through June 12. $25.

(No show June 4; extra show 2 pm Saturday, June 11.)

The Skin of Our Teeth - photo by OwenCarey The Skin of Our Teeth – photo by OwenCarey

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