Three Plays: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, and The Matchmaker

by Thornton Wilder

From celebrated Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Thornton Wilder, three of the greatest plays in American literature together in one volume.

This omnibus edition brings together Wilder’s three best-known plays: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, and The Matchmaker. Includes a preface by the author, as well as a foreword by playwright John Guare.

Our Town, Wilder's timeless Pulitzer Prize-winning look at love, death, and destiny, opened on Broadway in 1938 and continues to be celebrated and performed around the world.

The Skin of our Teeth, Wilder's 1942 romp about human follies and human endurance starring the Antrobus family of Excelsior, New Jersey, earned Wilder his third Pulitzer Prize.

The Matchmaker, Wilder's brilliant 1954 farce about money and love starring that irrepressible busybody Dolly Gallagher Levi. This play inspired the Broadway musical Hello, Dolly!

Genres: Plays, Drama, Fiction, Classics, Theatre, 20th Century, American

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.

For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornton...

Reviews

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Thornton Wilder's The Long Christmas Dinner; especially the way he managed to use the essential unreality of the stage to telescope time so that generations pass before our eyes, partaking essentially of the same Christmas dinner. So it was with considerable excitement that I picked this book up at a second-hand bookshop.

I am sorry to say that it was somewhat of a let-down.

Wilder uses the same technique of breaking up the illusion of verisimilitude that the proscenium stage provides, which essentially makes the viewers into voyeurs peeping into someone else's reality through the "fourth wall": and this is his intention. Fed up with the traditional methods of how plays are produced, acted and directed, the playwright here makes sure that a "realistic" approach to his play is impossible. He does this through minimal and stylistic stage settings, stylised performances, shifts in time (back and forth) and the direct interaction of the characters with the audience. Two of the plays also contain a stage manager who talks to the audience.

Non-realistic plays are the norm in the traditional theatre of the east, so I have no problem relating with that (in fact, the stage manager here is a direct relative of the Sutradhara of the Sanskrit plays) - what spoilt the experience for me was the technique applied across three plays proved "too much of a good thing". I liked Our Town; The Skin of Our Teeth, mildly; and by the time I got to The Matchmaker, I could not finish it. But partly, I think, the fault lies within me. These plays are very hard to visualise and are ideally meant to be seen and not read.

So - three stars.

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Emily: 'Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every minute?'
Stage Manager: 'No.'
(silence)
Stage Manager: 'The saints and the poets, maybe—they do some.'"

This was my first experience with Thornton Wilder, and it was wild (sorry—it's true, though). This collection includes three plays: Our Town, a wonderful, cosmic slice of our existence; The Skin of Our Teeth, confusing but brilliant in flashes, like life itself; and The Matchmaker, a Molieresque, clichéd farce which, while funny at times, pales in comparison to the others.

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

original readings:
The Matchmaker & The Skin of Our Teeth May, 1982 and January 2018
I was on a kick looking for monologues in his short plays and got into reading the longer ones as well.
Our Town June, 1982, June, 2015
(I was Emily Webb. I can still remember a hell of a lot of those lines)

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three fine plays by a writer I had previously known only from his short novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey (which I rather enjoyed).

I am aware that Our Town was famous in its day. It is alluded to (ironically) in a Joseph Heller play I read a few months back. It has a structure that is very gently experimental. The 'action' of the play is mildly metafictional in its development. It is a little too sentimental for my tastes. It reminds me of Ray Bradbury at his most slushy (and least inventive). But I quite enjoyed it.

The Skin of Our Teeth is much better. This is surely the best of the three. It is absurdist and has great whimsical ideas and is unusual in every way. Perhaps it is a little too chaotic but I suppose that on stage it could work wonderfully. I would like to see it performed. This is a Thornton Wilder work that is a little closer to Ionesco than to standard theatre and I appreciate the fact.

The Matchmaker was the most enjoyable to read. I doubt it would be the best to see on stage. It is very much a traditional farce with men hiding in wardrobes and all that sort of thing. There are some good comedic lines, but the fantastical invention that makes The Skin of Our Teeth stand out is missing.

[Tony Perona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thornton Wilder is a genius, and one of my favorite authors. I got this book to re-read his brilliant play, “Our Town,” for a project I am working on. It is every bit as good as I remembered it! While I didn’t re-read “The Skin of our Teeth” or “The Matchmaker” This time around, they are equally brilliant. Highly recommended!

[Hanako · Rating 4 out of 5]

my favorite was the matchmaker for sure. it was super entertaining and funny and the plot was completely clear and i liked how each act really flowed into the following act, unlike our town and the skin of our teeth.

the skin of our teeth was a little too confusing for me—i understand that some of it is supposed to be satire, but it just ended up being not very enjoyable. none of the characters were likable either. sabina, the lead, isn't likable but i'll admit she must be great character to play.

it makes sense to me that our town is a classic. i still don't like how separate each act is, but the end made me cry.

our town 7/10
the skin of our teeth 5/10
the matchmaker 9.5/10

[Mila Kordic · Rating 4 out of 5]

our town: 5/5
the skin of our teeth: 4/5
the matchmaker: 4/5

i need everyone to drop what they’re doing and read our town. buy a collection of the plays, buy it on its own, borrow it, read it as an ebook, listen to it in audiobook, steal it from someone, i don’t care READ THAT PLAY. it’s genuinely my favourite play ever. thornton wilder you have changed my life!!! i honestly feel like he wrote this for me bc i am someone who gets so emotional and overwhelmed over the idea of life and humanity and death and he just depicted it in such a perfect way in this play. the townspeople are normal and don’t really do much with their lives and then in the third act you realise how beautiful and fleeting life is and you realise the every day mundane things the townspeople were doing wasn’t mundane at all and all the moments spent alive are so precious. i sound so so so cheesy but genuinely wilder has made me appreciate life so much more and i’ll never take the sound of clocks ticking or coffee for granted every again. this play will make you fall in love with life (and sob so hard like i couldn’t breathe) i swear it’s incredible.

can’t lie didn’t love the skin of our teeth as much as our town but i still think it was a great play. this play showed how clever thornton wilder is it was so witty and had so many references to history and mythology. it was more satirical and less serious but it still very much explored humanity and how history repeats itself and humans continue to overcome disaster after disaster and still find reason and will to live in our difficult world.

and finally the matchmaker, probably my least fave but still so good and soooo incredibly silly i felt like i was ready a tennessee williams play on steroids. the characters are so colourful and messy and it doesn’t have a super deep message but i think that’s okay because sometimes you just need a bit of adventure in your life and that’s what the play is all about.

to conclude, everyone needs to read thornton wilder he is incredible, he has changed my life and i will love him forever.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

One major thing that is pointed out in this play is that people walk through life without ever really seeing anything, and this is shown on many an occasion, not really being noticed until it is too late to do anything about. People that are alive do not have the worries that life will be short because they are still living it. They do not worry about spending each second like it was their last because it is not. They live life on a day to day basis, not worrying about whether or not they live it to its fullest because there will always be more time. The worst part is that life could end at any minute. And when that person has not lived a full enough life, they will have no one to blame but themselves for not appreciating it when they had it. It is often said that people do not miss things until they are gone, and this is one more example. If only people could miss it when they still had it, then losing it would not be such a tragedy because they would have been happy either way.

*I thought this was an excellent review by SHAYLYN on AMAZON.com my thoughts exactly!

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review for Our Town
Read/posted 11/29/18
5 out of 5 stars

There's not one idea in this play I haven't thought hundreds upon hundreds of times. Problem was, they always remained brain thoughts, never quite reaching my soul. Thornton Wilder put them in soul language for me. Now I understand my thoughts, because I understand that they can't be understood.

A friend who recommended Our Town told me: "It's a classic." She's right. And I know why it's a classic to me. Quoting from John Guare's foreword, "The response we make when we 'believe' a work of the imagination is that of saying: 'This is the way things are. I have always known it without being fully aware that I knew it. Now in the presence of this play or novel or poem (or picture or piece of music) I know that I know it.'"

Review for the Skin of Our Teeth
Read/posted 12/22/18
3 out of 5 stars

Okay, what just happened? I did NOT understand that play. Period. Three stars because it was mostly entertaining and sometimes hilarious. But I'm afraid I sadly missed the point Wilder was trying to impress upon us. I also have a niggling feeling I would have disagreed with him had I understand what he was saying. Sad. I suppose not everything can be as amazing as Our Town!

Review for the Matchmaker
Read/posted 12/23/18
4 out of 5 stars

All I can think just now is: I-have-to-see-this-play-I-have-to-see-this-play-I-REALLY-MUST-see-this-play! It's a truly ludicrous farce, worthy of all effort put forth on my part to see it. Envisionimg it as I read was difficult because I've seen very few plays --- and those they were only non-professionl school plays. Also, there are several scenes of utter chaos in which I was hopelessly lost, trying to keep all the characters straight while remembering exactly how the stage was set up. In conclusion: I-have-to-see-this-play-because-I-almost-split-my-sides-with-laughter-as-I-read-it. Highly recommended!

~~~~~~~~~

This is an excellent collection of Thornton Wilder's plays. I'm new to his plays --- who am I kidding, I'm new to plays in general! --- and for me this served as a great introduction. Happy reading!

[Julie Richert-Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trying to remember where I picked up this cheap, obviously obscure paperback of Three Plays . . . no doubt in a dusty, overfull, used bookshop in my early years of travel and adventure when my overly earnest, uneducated self was stocking some overly earnest checklist of "All the Literature One Must Read Before One Dies."
I wish I could send a message back to myself: "There is time, darling. You don't need to settle for the $0.25 paperback."
At any rate, it was here in my library, languishing, so I (literally, in three places) cracked it open.

Our Town gradually reveals itself, not as sentimental tedium but a remarkably prescient, affectionate commentary on small town life, and small town America I suppose. With the slow build up to the searing question: "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? -- every every minute?"
STAGE MANAGER: "No." Pause. "The saints and poets, maybe --they do some."

The Skin of Our Teeth was beyond me. Perhaps the pall of climate change colors the air too much for any humor or foreshadowing to glimmer through. It felt chaotic and exhausting.

The Matchmaker is delightful. And while I love "Hello, Dolly" endlessly, I found myself surprised at the radical alteration of the ending. Wilder had it better.

[Michael Kohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't read the Matchmaker bc other things on the reading list but:

Our Town really is a play in three acts. The sloppy introduction makes the first act really quite poor, while the lack of action in the second act cannot save the writing. However, in the famous third act, Wilder more than makes up for it all by delivering some of the most moving theatre written.

I am informed by friends that The Skin of Our Teeth may have been a rip off of Finnegan's Wake- it even starts and ends with almost the same line. I do not particularly mind this, given the Skin of Our Teeth is far more readable. Surreal, bizarre and with the fourth wall breaks perfectly executed, this was a fantastic read if not with a slightly flat third act, though without the character of Sabina it would have been incredibly mid.

[Alex O · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, together with Goodreads' peer pressure (shout out Charlotte) and finding this book hidden in a used bookstore in Hungary I decided to give this book a go.

Our Town:
Wow was this play amazing. I doubled up this experience by watching a recording of the play while also reading the book and finished with tears in my eyes. I enjoyed the existentialism and nostalgia that made up this play and I have been thinking about it over the past few days. Definitely want to check out Tom Lake. 5/5

The Skin of Our Teeth:
This play was crazy. You can search the plot online but its satire, breaking of the fourth wall, and spectacle made it an entertaining read. I think there's a lot within this play from allusions to philosophy of humanity. It is unbelievably different from Our Town which made it hard to adjust to and I think watching the play would provide more clarity as there is a lot of time jumps and scene discontinuities. 3/5

I didn't read The Matchmaker but may do so later.

[Dan Lafferty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our Town - 5 Stars
Skin of Our Teeth - 5 Stars
Matchmaker - 3 Stars

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have performed on two of these plays. I was Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth, and I was Dolly Levi in The Matchmaker. Dolly was, by far, my favorite, and I would love to play her again one day.

[Sadaffou · Rating 3 out of 5]

شايد صحنه آخر فقط باعث شد به جاى يك ستاره ، سه ستاره بدم . اون هم نه از ته دل....

[jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our Town: 5 stars. I thought it was brilliant, not only for Wilder's right dose of "meta" concern, but also for his mastery of creating a world out of such mundane goings-on, using only dialogues and stage directions.

The Skin of Our Teeth: 5 stars. If Our Town was about putting our daily life under the microscope, The Skin of Our Teeth was about taking a step back from it, and entertaining it on a more fundamental level: that, for better or worse, life is a cycle of beginning and end, and that for it to be meaningful, from our perspective, a desire to make something happen is essential, no matter how insignificant it seems to be. It was a clever piece of work, but can certainly come across as strange. My advice is that, while reading it, enjoy the ride -- or, in the words of Miss Somerset, don't think about it.

The Matchmaker: 3 stars. This one pulled down my overall rating a bit. My main issue was that those melodrama appeared to be elicited without a purpose, despite the "moral" at the end. But The Matchmaker was, after all, presented as a farce, so perhaps I was asking too much.

[وائل المنعم · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd like to say that Thornton Wilder as a playwright didn't interest me very much although i liked "our town" very much. It's one of the cases of "the author of one work", The skin of our teeth was very bad, i didn't like It at all, and the matchmaker was an ordinary farce. As a novelist i did't read any of his well known novels yet.

Here's my reviews about each play

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun fact about "The Matchmaker" - it was a re-written version of "The Merchant of Yonkers", which was based on a German comedy by Johann Nestroy, "Einen Jux will es sich Machen, which was in turn based on the English play by John Oxenford, "A Day Well Spent." It also drew on material from Molier's "L'Avare". And "The Matchmaker", of course, was the basis of the musical "Hello Dolly."

As a straightforward farce, "The Matchmaker" is the odd-man-out in this threesome: Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth are more serious, more symbolic, and more experimental. The Skin of Our Teeth was particularly tantalizing, although I won't claim to have fully grasped its meaning.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed and found relevence and quality writing in the first two plays, but the third "The Matchmaker" which eventually became the musical "Hello Dolly" was not very interesting. It was a commercial play written to make money, whereas his other plays were written with certain amounts of integrity and artistic craftmanship (along with having something to say.) Reading them all together was acctually a bit confusing. I would like to read his novels to get a better grasp on him as a writer. Over all not even close to my favorite playwrite.

[Darinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three plays by Thornton Wilder.

Our Town ★★★★
A play about life in a small town. Told in three acts - daily life, marriage, and death. Simple, beautiful, and tragic.

The Skin of Our Teeth ★★★
The story of a family that has been around for thousands of years. They've survived, by the skin of their teeth, multiple end of world scenarios - ice, flood, and war. A unique play that relies on breaking the fourth wall. Absurd and witty.

The Matchmaker ★★★
A wealthy merchant hires a matchmaker to find him a wife. A delightful and humorous play.

[Daisy Leather · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Our Town' is THE most BEAUTIFUL play that has ever existed. Damn.

[‎ Amirah Afinday · Rating 5 out of 5]

The line "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?-every, every minute?" from "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder encapsulates one of the play's central themes; the importance of appreciating the present moment and the transient nature of life.

After passing away, Emily finds herself in the afterlife wishing to go back in time and experience just one day from her past. She becomes acutely aware of how frequently people take their daily experiences for granted and fail to fully appreciate the beauty and significance contained in each passing moment as she observes the world of the living. This moving line serves as a starting point for reflection, inspiring us to look inward and consider whether we are truly present and aware of the depth of our own experiences. It immediately contradicts the widely held belief that life is spent in a constant state of chaos, distraction, and worry about the future, Instead, it encourages us to slow down, take a moment, and truly appreciate how important this moment is

This serves as a call to reflection, encouraging us to recognize the fleeting aspect of life and underlining the value of cherishing the seemingly unremarkable moments, the connections we create, and the intricate intricacies that make up our existence. It serves as a subtle reminder that lite is made up of a variety of connected incidents, and that unless we stop to consider their underlying worth, we run the risk
of missing the real purpose of existence.

"Our Town" compels us to awaken to the beauty and significance of the present moment, encouraging us to savor life's fleeting experiences and find fulfillment in the everyday. It prompts us to approach our lives with a sense of gratitude, mindfulness, and a deeper appreciation for the intricate
fabric of existence that weaves us all together.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read “Our Town” because I’ve seen and heard bits of it in popular culture but never knew the play in its entirety. Of course, the bits I had known — Act III quotes about the precious and fleeting nature of life — are the bits worth knowing. The frame and premise are solid, and I can see why this is an influential play, but the first two acts were grating for the outdated, narrow depictions of ordinary days and life milestones that are intended to be universal yet obviously are not.

I read the other two plays and all of the prefaces and commentaries because, well, I’m a bit anal about finishing books (no matter how long it takes). Each of these plays break the fourth wall, to varying degrees, and with varying success.

“The Matchmaker” is a silly farce with some memorable, funny lines but mostly not. I had never seen the movie “Hello, Dolly,” which is based on the musical, which is in turn based on this play (but changes and adds many things). So now I’ve done that too. Barbra Streisand was delightful, there were some fun dance scenes, and who wouldn’t love a Louis Armstrong cameo? But otherwise neither version of this story was my cup of tea.

“Skin of My Teeth” is the best of the bunch and the only one I’d want to see performed. It’s totally original, often surreal, sometimes hilarious, and overall kind of a hot mess. If I summarized the plot you’d think I’m joking.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

For book club, we are only discussing one of Wilder's plays - The Skin of Our Teeth, which is the strangest of the bunch. I had seen a high school production of Our Town before and now want to see Hello, Dolly! The plays might not seem as strange when viewed as opposed to read.

Without the brief analysis of The Skin of Our Teeth, I would've been utterly baffled. It is an odd play and received a rather warm reception due to its time, WW2. There will be plenty to discuss.

From a reading perspective, The Matchmaker was easiest and in minute ways reminded me of Oscar Wilde, but probably most for its being a farce.

Overall, strange but award-winning.

[Max Bergmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our Town was just as nice as the first two times I read it. I think of it whenever I take a nice hot shower. Life really is nice when you compare it to being dead... Still, one begins to think it's a drag again when one looks at history and realizes not much ever changes and nothing ain't too special. That's what The Skin of Our Teeth seems to me to be about, and just like me and everyone else ever, Thornton Wilder seems to come around to that that is just the way things are. And once your heart has been a little bit hardened like that, that's when you really respect something that manages to make you laugh, which The Matchmaker sure did for me. 3 wonderful plays get five golden stars.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing Wilder wrote radiates with the truly magical wonder of "Our Town" though his one-acts "Pullman Car Hiawatha" and "The Long Christmas Dinner" sure come close. Here "The Skin of Our Teeth" intermittently shows a similar grandness in scope and scheme but "The Matchmaker," fun as it may be, just feels like a solid boulevard comedy anyone could've written. Personally, I wish there were a Wilder collection that pulled together all his meta-macro plays including "The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden," too.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be 5 stars, but I didn't care for The Skin of Our Teeth.
Our Town- Amazing! I would love to see this play live.
The Skin of Our Teeth- So bizarre with a touch of blasphemy and I just didn't care about the story.
The Matchmaker- I never knew Hello Dolly was based on this play! I love the movie, and I have seen the play live a few times. It was interesting how they changed the movie/play to accommodate musical numbers. The ending is also rather different. Still great characters and word play. This was a fun read.

[Alan Alva · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Spoiler"

In the play “our town” , by Thornton Wilder, he highlights living and death. In act one the play begins with the birth of twins. The audience is introduced to main characters in act one and they show us how they grew up. In act two they show us how the two main characters love each other. The audience is introduced with a long lasting relationship. In act 3 one of the main character dies due to natural causes. This shows that life can be taken from you, without you enjoying it.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Have only read 'Our Town', though will likely read the other two plays in this edition at some point as well.]
Well crafted and almost timeless - hard to believe it's 100 years old. I would like to see a performance of it (and looking forward to our book club read through, even though I'm sure we won't do it justice!). Also made me want to reread 'Tom Lake' now that I actually know what the play that novel centres around is all about!

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always loved Our Town--yup, cried again. My first time for The Skin of Our Teeth--even weirder than Our Town, an interesting premise, and a few eerily current sounding quotes about immigrants and foreigners. I've seen Hello Dolly, but this was my first time reading The Matchmaker. Stick with the musical--it makes more sense.