middletown

Response to Middletown

I found it interesting that Middletown was somewhere in between a recreation of Our

Town, while also mocking the play and its playwright, Thornton Wilder. Our Town plays on the

feeling of nostalgia by taking you through the town of Grovers Corners, New Hampshire, and

showing you the ordinary lives of the townspeople. In a lot of different ways, Middletown can

be considered a hilarious and creative rethinking of this classic tale. For instance, the Stage

Manager is the narrator for Our Town, as is acknowledged as a wholesome, knowledgeable

figure in this fictional town. In contrast, Middletown features the Cop acts as a narrator. During

the first scene, the cop is scene chocking out the Mechanic for no apparent reason. The concept

of “defamiliarization” is heavily drawn upon in this piece, as we are taken from what seems to

be an ordinary town with ordinary people, to a town filled with eccentric personalities (the tour

guide and cop characters) and abnormal situations