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Pudd’nhead Wilson
By Mark Twain
Adapted by Terry McCabe & Brian Pastor
Directed by Terry McCabe
At City Lit theater
1020 W. Bryn Mawr
Chicago, IL
Call773-293-3682, tickets $25
Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm
Sundays at 3 pm
Running time is 2 hours, 15 minutes with intermission
Through June 15, 2008
Fine Twain adaptation unfolds at City Lit Theatre
City Lit Theater specializes in mounting stage adaptations of classic literature. Their latest is Terry McCabe and Brian Pastor’s adaptation of Mark Twain’s 1894 novel, Pudd’nhead Wilson. This ambitious production is a period epic (1830-45) that deals with the evils of slavery. It is part mystery, part fable, and part character study that is long on satire and farce. Twain’s attack on slavery uses a switch-at-birth devise to ponder the theme of identity—who determines one’s identity—society or that person?
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Pudd’nhead Wilson tells the story of Roxana (Noelle Hardy in a strong performance), a woman whose is 1/16th African, therefore by law (at the time) a Black and a slave. To save her son, she switches her baby with her master’s white baby while both were only seven months old. The results eventually set off a series of complications that heighten the role identity plays in society. Add the quirky Pudd’nhead Wilson (Kingsley Day in a low key but effective turn), whose obsession with storing fingerprints of everyone he meets, and the play contains the ingredients of a detective story and a local color drama. The switched babies and Twain’s depiction of Tom (Ehren Fournier—his finest performance to date) as a cruel, arrogant and bigoted white man adds fuel to his satire of the evils of slavery and the role of identity to define a person.
The play features excellent local period accents from Black slave, to white Southern, to New England. Nathan R. Rohrer’s costume design richly depicts the 1830-40’s. McCabe and Pastor’s adaptation covers the novel effectively as it conveys Twain’s colorful characters in a tight, yet fast-paced production. The show vividly gets across the evils of bigotry and social stereotypes. Randolph Johnson, as the Narrator, effectively unified and gave context to the story.
Kingsley Day’s Wilson, Noelle Hardy’s Roxana, Ehren Fournier’s Tom highlighted a fine cast. The 18 players smartly depicted the wacky Twain characters. Craig J. Newman and Dan Howard were a hoot as the conjoined twins, Count Angelo and Count Luigi.
City Lit Theater is on a role this year with an assortment of terrific work, Pudd’nhead Wilson can be added to that roster. Twain would appreciate the humor, the suspense and the biting commentary contained in this fine play.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: May 10, 2008
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