The Skin of Our Teeth

This article is about the 1942 play. For the 1959 Australian television play based on it, see The Skin of Our Teeth (film). For the biblical phrase, see Skin of my teeth.
The Skin of Our Teeth
Handbill for the 1942 Broadway production. Artwork by Don Freeman.
Written byThornton Wilder
CharactersSabina
Mrs. Antrobus
Mr. Antrobus
Gladys
Telegraph Boy
Dinosaur
Chair Pusher
Henry
Woolly Mammoth
Date premieredOctober 15, 1942
Place premieredShubert Theatre
New Haven, Connecticut
Original languageEnglish
GenreComedy
SettingThe Antrobus home in Excelsior, New Jersey; the Atlantic City boardwalk

The Skin of Our Teeth is a play by Thornton Wilder that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened on October 15, 1942, at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway on November 18, 1942. It was produced by Michael Myerberg and directed by Elia Kazan with costumes by Mary Percy Schenck. The play is a three-part allegory about the life of mankind, centering on the Antrobus family of the fictional town of Excelsior, New Jersey. The epic comedy-drama is noted as among the most heterodox of classic American comedies, as it breaks nearly every established convention of theatrical performances that was in effect when Wilder wrote it.

The phrase used as the title comes from the King James Bible, Job 19:20: "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth."