The Skin of our Teeth
“For an American dramatist, all roads lead back to Thornton Wilder…THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH was a remarkable gift to an America entrenched in catastrophe, a tribute to the trait of human endurance.”
Completed by the author less than a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, The Skin of our Teeth (1942) broke from established theatrical conventions and walked off with the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Combining farce, burlesque, and satire, and elements of the comic strip, Thornton Wilder depicts an Everyman Family as it narrowly escapes one end-of-the-world disaster after another, from the Ice Age to flood to war.
Meet George and Maggie Antrobus of Excelsior, New Jersey, a suburban, commuter-town couple (married for 5,000 years), who bear more than a casual resemblance to that first husband and wife, Adam and Eve: the two Antrobus children, Gladys (perfect in every way, of course) and Henry (who likes to throw rocks and was formerly known as Cain); and their garrulous maid, Sabina (the eternal seductress), who takes it upon herself to break out of character and interrupt the course of the drama at every opportunity (“I don’t understand a word of this play!”)
Whether he is inventing the alphabet or merely saving the world from apocalypse, George and his redoubtable family somehow manage to survive–by the skin of their teeth.
The play known as the “Skin” has had many celebrated productions in this country and abroad, including an English -speaking world tour staring Helen Hayes among others. In 1976, with Elizabeth Ashley as Sabina (known in the trade as one of the of most demanding roles in American drama) The Skin of our Teeth bowed at the Kennedy Center as the theatrical centerpiece for the nation’s Bi-centennial celebration.
From the blog:
Surviving by The Skin of Our Teeth: Closing out The Skin’s 75th Anniversary Year
In the Event of an Air Raid
Thornton Wilder's Optimistic Catastrophe: 'The Skin of Our Teeth'
Why Thornton Wilder Matters in the Trump Era
Rosey Strub of the Thornton Wilder Estate speaks with Tappan Wilder, nephew of Thornton Wilder, about The Skin of Our Teeth for Harper Academic.
Photos
Videos
Tappan Wilder on The Skin of Our Teeth
LICENSING
Amateur Productions in the USA, Puerto Rico and Commonwealth Countries:
Samuel French Inc.
All Professional Productions; Amateur Productions outside the USA and Commonwealth Countries:
Alan Brodie Representation Ltd.
PURCHASE
Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays and Writings on Theater, published by the Library of America