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Twain’s Tales includes five short stories by the master American storyteller—“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” “Science vs. Luck,” “The Joke That Made Ed’s Fortune,” “The Belated Russian Passport” and “Is He Living or Is He Dead?”—as well as the fence-painting chapter from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The play takes place at a general store in what could be Hannibal, Missouri in the late 1800s. The five locals—the storekeeper and his wife, a printer, a reporter and a riverboat pilot—spend the morning entertaining each other by seeing who can spin the tallest tale. As the narratives unfold, the storytellers, written in the tradition of story theatre, become the characters in the tales. Twain’s razor-sharp wit and ability to expose our human foibles make this play more than just entertainment.
Twain’s Tales includes five short stories by the master American storyteller—“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” “Science vs. Luck,” “The Joke That Made Ed’s Fortune,” “The Belated Russian Passport” and “Is He Living or Is He Dead?”—as well as the fence-painting chapter from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The play takes place at a general store in what could be Hannibal, Missouri in the late 1800s. The five locals—the storekeeper and his wife, a printer, a reporter and a riverboat pilot—spend the morning entertaining each other by seeing who can spin the tallest tale. As the narratives unfold, the storytellers, written in the tradition of story theatre, become the characters in the tales. Twain’s razor-sharp wit and ability to expose our human foibles make this play more than just entertainment.
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