The Skin of Our Teeth | |
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![]() Handbill for the 1942 Broadway production. Artwork by Don Freeman. | |
Written by | Thornton Wilder |
Characters | Sabina Mrs. Antrobus Mr. Antrobus Gladys Telegraph Boy Dinosaur Chair Pusher Henry Woolly Mammoth |
Date premiered | October 15, 1942 |
Place premiered | Shubert Theatre New Haven, Connecticut |
Original language | English |
Genre | Comedy |
Setting | The 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 — it broke nearly every established theatrical convention.
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."