what i liked about our town
... birthday as the occasion that she would like to return to. As Mrs. Gibbs (one of those who had died ahead of Emily) said: "Choose an unimportant day. It will be important enough." So Emily sees her parents and feels great excitement about everything she sees. She comments that she never realized that "her mother looked so young." Her parents go about their usual routine, with Emily trying to be part of it all again and failing. She then says the play's strongest line, and I don't know if I remembered it accurately but referring to life, Emily says: "Does anyone really realize you while they live it?' Another good aspect of this play is the role of the stage manager. All-knowing, all-seeing, slipping in and out of other roles at will, the Stage Manager stands outside the action. He tells us what young lovers Emily and George, their parents and neighbors don't know (in one instance explaining when and how the Gibbs parents died even as we're just meeting them), but he also knows far more than he's telling. Even as he pulls us in, he remains out of reach, too much for us to understand in the context of this merely life-sized story. Another go...