Thornton Wilder’s Our Town is most certainly metatheatrical — at times, it’s almost anti-theatrical. The action is minimal, the laughs are sparse, and the third act is notoriously somber.

The stage manager, breaking the proverbial fourth wall of theater, frequently addresses the audience directly. Few props are used, and the set is often imaginary.

Yet because Wilder deals honestly and unpretentiously with themes so common in American society, Our Town has the potential to be a highly rewarding piece, both for actor and audience.

Its quiet transparency as a work of theater may be why so many call it a “timeless classic.”

While not quite bringing down the house, as Wilder’s play has the potential to do, director Andrew Tsao’s ambitious School of Drama production is a fresh take on the oft-produced play and offers theater-goers a first look at the newly renovated Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse.

The script is a guided tour of the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, set in New Hampshire at the turn of the 20th century. The story focuses on the neighboring households of Doc Gibbs and Mr. Webb.

Through various slice-of-life vignettes, the play highlights the ups and downs of the townsfolk, the love and marriage of two neighborhood children, and finally a general coming to terms with death and mortality.

Tsao must be commended for his ambitious efforts at breaking the play out of some of its traditional ruts. He has expanded the role of the stage manager from one omniscient narrator to three. Stage directions are barked over microphones and video cameras blast live action shots onto screens above the set. Much of the cast is present on stage throughout the play, seated casually at a table upstage.

In an aggressive move, Tsao has his chorus of actors trade roles throughout the play and, on many levels, the device works well. As the passing of time is a central theme, seeing new faces at the beginning of each act amplifies the perception of change over the years. Furthermore, in liberating the characters from the control of one actor, they function more universally as archetypes, heightening the sense of timelessness and generality.

But the shuffling is not without a price. For one, it makes the character development markedly spastic. And during the more dramatic scenes, especially toward the latter half of the play, the cast rearrangements have a dampening effect on the audience’s attachment to the characters, weakening the gravity of Wilder’s dramatic build-up.

Among all the actor-character pairings, there are certainly a number of strong performances.

Sarah Heywood’s turn as the bookishly charming Emily Webb is borne with both subtle humor and a well-portrayed youthful notion of love.

Stephanie McAlexander shines briefly as Rebecca Gibbs, a silly young chatterbox, and again with more weight as Emily Webb, poignantly delivering the play’s epilogue with just as much depth as a young mother might muster.

The three stage managers, Allison Standley, Laurie Roberts and Kate Sumpter, give the most homogenous performance of all the character combinations. Dressed in flat black with typical stage manager headsets, they take turns conducting the actors and assertively guiding the audience through the plot.

The set is dark and transparently utilitarian. Tables double as houses, clothed mannequins serve as vague stand-ins for townsfolk, and a sunken pit at the front of the stage is used as the operating station for the stage managers. In keeping with tradition, nearly all props are mimed.

Timeless as it is, Our Town is a play about life as it was a century ago. For this reason it can be a tough sell, but it’s nonetheless a thoughtful reminder both of how far America has come, and what it still shares with its past.

This winter’s production takes a few admirable risks, but the novel devices tend to combat rather than embrace the inherent subtlety of Wilder’s work.

That said, it’s a fresh-feeling production for a fresh theater. See it for the weight of the script, the agility of the actors and the awesome new space.

Reach reporter Trevor Pendras at arts@dailyuw.com.