The Emporium

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About the Show

A young man’s journey reveals life’s mysteries in Thornton Wilder’s final play.

The Emporium, the final play by Thornton Wilder, completed by playwright Kirk Lynn. The story follows a young man traveling through a city and into unfamiliar landscapes, where he encounters a series of people and situations that challenge his understanding of the world. As his journey unfolds, everyday spaces and chance meetings become moments of reflection on purpose, knowledge, and human connection. Wilder’s unfinished work is realized through Lynn’s completion of the text, bringing the playwright’s last dramatic project to the stage.

Critic Reviews (9)

"There might be a terror to adapting a giant like Williams or Wilder, but the answer ain't reverence: You've got to get in there and dance."
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"It's clear by the text, and its delivery by the cast, that this entire production is an act of love."
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"Kirk Lynn makes a valiant yet strained attempt to reconstruct a play that befuddled its own author."
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"The Emporium manages some affecting moments near the end as John confronts the Sisyphean nature of his existence, but this is an exhausting journey with no clear destination, populated by blank characters and filled with pronouncements rather than dialogue."
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"Unfortunately, the metaphor overtakes the play, and it is hard to be moved by the cosmic lessons the characters learn at the end."
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"It comes across today like a rambling, disjointed mess that only periodically sparks to life."
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"less a completed play than a séance with one of the great American theatrical minds, and it proves utterly enthralling"
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Candy Buckley, who plays multiple roles with a plucky energy that proves almost infectious, brings a sly levity and a sense of balance to a show that teeters between the abstruse and the twee. ★★★☆☆
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