We join the Antrobus family at the beginning of three catastrophes. The Ice Age, The Great Flood, and World War II. The quintessential nuclear family, each member an archetype. Sabina, the maid, is the conniving, seductive siren. Henry is Cain, the wounded, homicidal delinquent. Gladys the spirited, adventurous daughter. Maggie the fierce, pragmatic mother, protecting the nest. The mainstay of civilization. George the dad, is raucous, pompous, and goodhearted. He has true genius, a spark that nudges humanity forward. The alphabet, the wheel, mathematics. His accomplishments stand with Newton, Einstein, Gutenberg. It’s not simply discovery, but when and how these occur in history.
Playwright Thornton Wilder has assembled a montage. Scraps and torn pieces from experiences of the every day. It might be a ticket to the movies, a parking citation, a foreclosure, a phone bill, a lab result. Despite the disparate nature of purpose and paper, he finds a way to make them fit. To make them work. The result far beyond the sum of its parts. Wilder has made a gloss of the human experience. Over centuries, over tragedies, over warfare, over celebration.
He constructs a home where the Antrobus family struggles to subsist. Chaos besieges from without and within. During the Ice Age they fight worse cold than anyone’s ever known. Sabina’s more concerned with nuisance than keeping the crucial fire going. Henry’s in dark trouble at school. Maggie makes impossible decisions because she must. George offers refuge to transients, when they barely have enough to live on, themselves.
Wilder ignores the fourth wall. We are subject to the extremes of survival. Sandwiches are passed around (Yum!). The show pauses to replace cast members. The fortune teller and Sabina address us directly. He crisscrosses details from different times. Anachronistic turning points are referenced. The Great Flood arrives at the Boardwalk. In contrast to her husband, Maggie discovers nylon stockings and the silkworm. Her inventions less lofty but useful in the day to day.
The Skin Our Teeth assembles the universe (deliriously and fancifully) within the confines of the Antrobus home and the Undermain Stage. It’s a curious allegory mixing the outlandish with the despondent. You might call it: Surviving the Unthinkable. Miseries considered only in the abstract till unavoidable. George, Maggie, Henry and Gladys are flawed but also heroic, just the rest of us. Fractured and lost and vain though we may be.
One imagines director Stefan Novinski spinning plates on sticks like jugglers back in the day. Too many simultaneous elements to follow, but thanks to Novinski, they converge. Narration from a newsreel, a model of the Antrobus home, cardboard houses encircling the perimeter, a reporters desk, puppets, a succession of performers quoting great philosophers. Actors play their parts but also, the “role” of themselves. Wilder sews the thread that proves out humanity. Humanity is the connective tissue. The actors are versatile and focused, shifting between moods and situations, with equal panache. They tuck into disparate characters with fervor.
Undermain Theatre presents: The Skin of our Teeth playing February 14th -March 8th, 2026.
3200 Main Street, Dallas, Texas. Tickets at Undermain.org. 214-747-5515/