Wilder's classic `Our Town' still has something to say.

• Position: LIVING - Theater review

Byline: Paul Kolas

COLUMN: THEATER REVIEW

STURBRIDGE - Maybe "Our Town" is too sedate and unadorned for those accustomed to more obvious theatrical fireworks, judging by the two ladies who left after the second intermission of Saturday evening's performance, but for the rest of those who remained for the conclusion of its elegiac third act, Stageloft artistic director Edward Cornely and his well-suited cast made one realize just what a tone poem Wilder's meditation on life, love and death really is.

It's both a time capsule and a reminder of how some things are inherently universal. The Gibbs and the Webbs may live in Thornton's world of 1900s Grover's Corners, N.H., but they could just as well be your next door neighbors, embracing the daily currents of life as best they can.

From Joe Wellwood's ill-fated paper boy, Joe Crowell, to Fred D'Angelo's warmly tinted milkman, Howie Newsome, every member of the cast threads their way through this human tapestry with quiet, unwavering assurance.

At the summit of this gallery is an absolutely splendid interpretation of the Stage Manager by Bruce Adams. Sporting a stylish Upper New England accent, Adams finds a perfect balance between sentiment and wry observation. His acting is so thoroughly grounded it feels sepia-toned in its authenticity.

He addresses all of Wilder's quirky narrative digressions with a light touch of wit and that's-just-the-way-life-is irony. He's folksy without being antiquated, smart and wise without being smug. It's a wonderful, ringmaster of a performance.

But this production would not work as well as it does without the two young leads who give it its awkward poignancy. Peter Arsenault and Lacey Melanson handle the flashback soda-fountain courtship scene between George Gibbs and Emily Webb with all the prescribed fumbling of feelings battling to express themselves with open relief.

Arsenault does a credible job of juggling George's tumult of emotions: his growing love for Emily, his thwarted plans to go to college, his terror at marrying so young. Melanson is quite moving too, masking her shyness with tremulous downcast eyes, fearful like George of leaving childhood behind forever and moving ahead to the unfathomable tides of adulthood.

One of the enduring virtues of "Our Town" is the way it

moves back and forth in time, shifting emotional priorities as well.

We feel the desperate desire of Emily, to once more relive her 12th birthday, to converse one last time with her...