Someone played a piano in the rehearsal barn while people waited for the show to start, sitting on benches under shady trees. Children worked the concession stand offering homemade strawberry shortcake.

The Hackmatack Playhouse in Berwick, Maine, is an old red barn with a faintly dusty smell, antique farming tools and exposed beams. It’s the perfect setting for “Our Town,” a play about the simple life. The first show of the season, it runs Wednesday through Saturday until July 4.

This New England classic drama by Thornton Wilder is set in Grover’s Corners, a composite of several average New Hampshire towns in the Mount Monadnock region during the early 1900s. Through three acts of daily life and death, the play touches on how industrialization and immigration change things, but it really focuses on how some things stay the same.

Hackmatack’s production, directed by Mary Tarochione, stays true to the original script by having a very sparse set. The only props are two kitchen tables with chairs, distinguishing the homes of the Gibbs and the Webbs, and two ladders, which lead to the pretend second story windows where sweethearts George Gibbs (James Rodger) and Emily Webb (Sara Packin) share homework answers.
Intentionally, much is left to the imagination as characters mime their actions throughout the play, and a good deal of listening comprehension is required of the audience as the stage manager describes the scene. This places importance on the mind over objects.

The famous line, “This is the way we were,” reminds people that this isn’t the way it is now. In addition to setting the scene, the stage manager has the pivotal role of narrating the play and actor Jim Murphy engages with a reflective tone throughout. He also plays the parts of a soda shop owner, a preacher and, surprisingly, an old lady.

But the most compelling scenes are the ones between two family members. In one, Dr. Gibbs (Tom Dillehay) talks to his son about being more helpful to his hardworking mother (Debra Martuscello Wiley), and the young George is shamed into tears. When Mrs. Gibbs comes home, she tries to talk her practical husband into taking some time off to travel. The close but complicated family relationships are easy to connect with and reiterate a theme of appreciating what you have while you have it.

Mr. Webb is the editor of the local newspaper, played sensitively by Tim Robinson. An actor from within the audience asks him about the culture of the town and he says there isn’t much. But, he goes on to charm by saying the townsfolk take pleasure in watching the sun come up over the mountains, paying attention to the birds and taking notice of the changing seasons.

Like all small towns, this one has its secrets. The town drunk Simon Stimson, played boisterously by Tom Morin, contributes to the play’s darker, depressing side. Some people may never be happy with the short life they’re given.

The drama really begins to unfold in the second act when George and Emily fall in love and get married. The actors are captivating in the emotional confessions of their feelings. Their pre-wedding jitters and the hesitations of their parents mark this time of transition when the young couple must grow up and leave home. Afterward, the play takes on a more melancholy feeling of the inevitable growing old and what happens beyond that. But the narrator insists that “something is eternal in every human being.”      

Contemplating the bittersweet quality of memories, Emily asks whether anyone really appreciates life while they live it. The stage manager’s endearing answer is, “Saints and poets, maybe. They do some.”

Hackmatack Playhouse is at 538 School St., Berick, Maine, 207-698-1807, www.hackmatack.org. Tickets are $22 for adults, $20 for students, children and seniors, with $2 discounts for matinees. Show times are Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee on Thursday, July 2.