by Cari Lynn Pace

Novato Theater Company’s highly imaginative presentation of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, running now through February 15, opens with a clever B&W film reel, spoofing the actors, establishing the mood, and setting the time squarely in the 1940’s. This inventive intro is just one of several creative special effects utilized in telling Wilder’s Avant-garde play-with-a-play.

The Skin of Our Teeth won the 1942 Pulitzer Prize for Drama despite its hilarious comedy bits. Critics and audiences marveled as actors spoke directly to the audience, breaking that “fourth wall.” It’s not an erudite play, but it certainly has a potent message. As NTC’s President Marilyn Izdebski states about the play, “Every word matters.”

The Skin of Our Teeth consists of three acts spread over time featuring characters from the same New Jersey family. The play’s title refers to narrowly escaping some misfortune or danger. Actors slip in and out of their stage roles, causing the audience to wonder at times what’s going on.

Act I reveals the frenzied antics of the Antrobus family as they attempt to survive the Ice Age. George Antrobus, played imperiously by Glenn Havlan, rules their world and invents everything while Mrs. Antrobus, in a solid performance by Michele Sanner Vargas, attempts to keep the household warm and the dinosaurs fed. Their exasperated maid Sabina, in a role perfected by Nicole Thordsen, has the best laughs. The family unit includes a spoiled daughter and a sulking son, played respectively by Arya Safavi and Dominic Marco Canty.  

Act II fast forwards to a more-or-less “modern day” scene after a beauty contest in New Jersey. The ice may be gone but now the end of the world approaches. A gypsy, in a delightful performance by stage veteran Shirley Nilsen Hall, manipulates Sabina who has just won the beauty contest into seducing George. The gypsy foretells disaster; will there be another narrow escape? The tryst ending in a tumult has added allure with costume design by Lyre Alston and Michael Walraven’s scenic designs.

Act III leaves comedy behind. The post-war world finds the family bedraggled, hungry, and depressed. A uniformed George muses “When you’re at war, you think of a better life.” He sadly acknowledges “I’ve lost the desire to start rebuilding.” 

George’s son Henry, who was sullen and seething in Acts I and II, now appears in full Rambo mode and violently attacks George. Actor Canty’s lunges and jumps are astonishing and spill out madly from the stage, startling the audience. Add shrieks from the family and mayhem is on the loose again.

An interruption recruits volunteers to sketchily fill in for ailing actors. The multi-costumed supporting cast quick-changes once again for their onstage jumble of roles. From starving muses to a sparkling chorus of gals and guys, confusion continues much like a three-ring-circus. The lights, including strobes, are wild and the contemporary music reverberates in the small NTC theater. The Skin of Our Teeth is best described as a cacophony of chaos.

If you’re a fan of Monty Python fun, this is the show to see. Kudos to director Nic Moore for lassoing such talented zaniness and effects into one entertaining production. 

Playing now through February 15 at the Novato Theater Company Playhouse, 5420 Nave Drive, Novato.

Click HERE for more information and tickets.

Photos by Michael Hunter

Cari Lynn Pace is a long-time Bay Area theatre critic whose reviews were regularly featured in the Marinscope Community Newspapers.