Middletown: Life in a small town

Middletown, originally produced by American playwright Will Eno in 2011, is a play about a small town going through the ups and downs of life together as a community.  I attended the play on its invited dress rehearsal night, Thursday September 22nd at 7:30 in the evening.  As I sat down in the audience ready for the play to begin, I did not know any background about the original play or what it was even about.  I began to analyze and watch how each individual character portrayed their part.  I thought that the mechanic part, played by Huntington University's own Riley Newsome, did a wonderful job as he made his part come alive and got the whole crowd laughing.  The play to me seemed to be about how a small community, like Middletown, can come together as one through all the pain, humor, and joys of life.  Every character had their own personality yet they all seemed to get along, except for the cop and the mechanic.  The major parts played by Sam Jones and Kaeley Osterman, as Mrs. Swanson and John Dodge, were played exceptionally well as they brought their own characters to life.  The ending of the play is what really took me for a turn as John Dodge died and new life was born.  This play was an exceptional portrayal of how life can really catch you in the "middle" and make you think what it really means to live or die.  I would highly recommend it to those who have not yet seen it.