The Skin of Our Teeth

The Skin of Our Teeth is a 1942 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Thornton Wilder, better known for Our Town. It follows the Antrobus family through thousands of years of existence, moving from an ice age to the biblical Flood to the aftermath of a war much like World War II but worse, mostly without leaving the fictional suburban town of Excelsior, New Jersey. The main characters--George and Maggie Antrobus, their children Henry and Gladys, and maid Sabina--are frequently utilized as allegories for biblical figures and archetypes, and are visited by historical figures and mythical or historical events. Needless to say, the whole play is swimming in an Anachronism Stew.

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Tropes used in The Skin of Our Teeth include:

• Abusive Parents (George Antrobus has no qualms about hitting his son Henry, especially when he's in a temper.)
• Anachronism Stew (Almost too many examples in the first two acts to list, but here's a good one from Act I: Despite the fact that George Antrobus just invented the alphabet recently, a poem by Longfellow is referenced. And then there's the fact that while the world is in the midst of one of the ice ages--Mammoths and all--the U.S. and all its cities exist in full, as do modern houses. And yet Moses and Homer and some Muses come to the Antrobus house seeking shelter from a glacier.)
• Cain and Abel (Henry and his unnamed elder brother, respectively. After killing his brother, Cain had his named changed to Henry by their parents to protect him from a bad reputation. Not that it did that much good...)
• Daddy's Girl (Because Henry is forever tainted in his father's eyes by the murder of his elder brother, most of Mr. Antrobus' affection is spent on his daughter Gladys.)
• Delinquents (Henry, although this just scratches the surface of his character.)
• Fortune Teller (One figures prominently in the second act, frequently visited by Sabina and also repeatedly trying to warn everyone that the great flood is coming.)
• It Got Worse (And then somehow better. A major theme of the play is that the human race is in a cycle, constantly rebuilding and destroying itself in various degrees.)
• Loads and Loads of Characters (Most of them are bit parts, but there's still a lot of them.)
• Mama Bear (Mrs. Antrobus, who'd "see us all laid out dead" if it would spare her children any discomfort.)
• No Fourth Wall (Sabina, or rather the actress playing Sabina, is the main offender here, frequently complaining about and apologizing for the ridiculousness of the play and even refusing to play the scene in the second act where she attempts to seduce George Antrobus away from his wife. When she describes her objection to the scene because she knew a woman whose husband was seduced in a similar manner, a plant in the audience actually starts crying and runs out. And then of course, there's the stage manager who keeps appearing, and... well, there's really too much to list here.)
• Offing the Offspring (A huge part of Act III, when George and Henry have come home from war as leaders of opposing armies.)
• Our Acts Are Different (Like Our Town, the play is in three acts of roughly the same length, with Intermission taken between each.)
• Parental Favoritism (See Daddy's Girl above.)
• Show Within a Show (Directly connected to No Fourth Wall, the show is framed as actors (who therefore are themselves fictional characters) in a performance of The Skin of Our Teeth. It comes to the fore in the beginning of Act III, where several of the actors have come down with food poisoning and are replaced in a symbolic time-filling scene by members of the backstage crew.)
• That's All Folks
• Title Drop (Sabina in the first act. It's part of a cue line that the actress playing Mrs. Antrobus is supposed to enter on, but doesn't, bringing about the first major breaking of the Fourth Wall by the character.)
• What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic (All over the place. Here's to start you off: the name "Antrobus" comes from the Greek for "human" or "person". Good luck unraveling all the other symbolism.)
• World of No Grandparents (As much notice as is given to family relations, the only mention of a grandparent is a brief reference by Mr. Antrobus to his parents.)