Skin of Our Teeth, The

Over at “The Skin of Our Teeth,” the millennium-hopping Thornton Wilder play that begins in the Ice Age, breaking the door down is deliberate: It’s the only way for a family with a pet dinosaur and a pet mammoth to let the enormous puppet creatures in and out of their house.

But with each calamity we manage to avoid by the skin of our teeth, the probability of one of the scenarios coming to pass surely begins to approach.

In Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, the fortuneteller unfurls her skirts, hoists her bodice, strolls downstage and heckles the audience.