Pudd’nhead Wilson, a stage adaptation of the Mark Twain novel of the same name, was commissioned by The Acting Company, Margo Harley, producing director. The production, directed by Walter Dallas, toured to twenty-two US cities 2001-02. The tour ended with 16 performances at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York.
Synopsis
Pudd’nhead Wilson is the story of the two sons of Judge Driscoll, the chief citizen of Dawson’s Landing, Missouri. Tom is the judge’s legal heir and the child of the judge’s wife; Chambers is the judge’s illegitimate child by the enslaved girl, Roxy.
When Driscoll threatens to sell Roxy’s son, she switches the babies in their cradles. The two boys grow up with each other’s identities – creating a situation both richly ironic and ultimately tragic.
“skilled and creative . . . Perhaps most impressively he (Charles Smith) has constructed a narrative frame and a plot twist of his own that darkens even Twain’s dark humor. The play’s final moments provide a layer of grim irony that seems eminently suitable to Twain.”
Bruce Weber of the New York Times.
Cast Size: 8 m., 3 w.
Multiracial cast
Available in The Gospel According to James and Other Plays – Swallow Press
For licensing information, please contact Barbara Hogenson, Barbara Hogenson Agency