Full of action, humor and human pathos, the play celebrates the ability of the human spirit to rise above circumstances.
By Christine Sackey
For the Times-Standard (April 23, 1993)
ARCATA - Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth" is a rich, rollicking play and the Pacific Art Center cast does full credit to it in its current production.
Full of action, humor and human pathos, the play celebrates the ability of the human spirit to rise above circumstances. It follows the adventures of the Antrobus family from the Ice Age to the Flood to the Ultimate World War, showing the survival of civilization and human values.
The Antrobus family includes of Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus; their two children; and Sabina, the maid. Erin Chambers plays the part of Sabina with panache, and is a delight to watch. She is the audience's tour guide throughout the sometimes confusing action, and viewers couldn't ask for a better one.
Gary Sommers is Mr. Antrobus, inventor of the wheel and the alphabet, the dreamer whose response to every setback is to start over again. Sommers plays the part with a light touch, showing his character's mood swings from despair to hope in a convincing yet understated way.
Mrs. Antrobus, played by Nancy Beall, is the antithesis of her husband, a practical woman who is fierce in defense of her own family. Beall gives the characters hard Puritan core of strength that enables her to meet every disaster and come through it with her head held high and her basic beliefs unshaken.
Laurel Hislop and James Perry are the Antrobus children, Gladys and Henry (who has changed his name from Cain). Perry does well as the sullen Henry/Cain, whose propensity to use his slingshot causes his family much anxiety. Nevertheless, the hints at Henry's darker side could perhaps be a little broader, so that the changes in his personality in the third act wouldn't seem quite so sudden.
The play is full of fascinating characters, including a fortune teller (Linda Berger revels in the role), Moses, the poet Homer, various muses, and a woolly mammoth and a dinosaur (played charmingly by two of Nancy Beall's children).
The play could easily degenerate into a string of disconnected character roles, but director James M. Floss has managed to blend a cast of individually strong characters into a unified whole. Norm Spenser's elaborate sets and a well-rehearsed cast add to the enjoyment.