Playwright: adapted by Margaret Raether from the novel by Mark Twain
At: First Folio Theatre at the Mayslake Peabody Estate, 1717 W. 31st St/Oak Brook Rd. in Oak Brook
Phone: ( 630 ) 986-8067; $17
Runs through: Dec. 18
Few of Mark Twain's classic American stories have been tweaked more than his tale of a modern man transported in time back to sixth-century England. The premise of an unenlightened society confronted by contemporary American values is no less tempting to adapter Margaret Raether. Besides, what more appropriate setting could you ask for than the 30-room Tudor Revival mansion housing First Folio Festival's cozy 80-seat performance space?
Raether's adaptation of the story opens with a tourist guide in England's Pendragon castle annoyed by a know-it-all college student from Hartford. As we soon learn, young Hank Morgan DOES know it all—indeed, he was THERE, after being knocked cold during a pick-up basketball game. While languishing in the year 528, he introduces such conveniences as soap, newspapers and electric scooters to Arthur's realm, later accompanying that monarch on a journey incognito throughout the kingdom. Our hero makes some enemies, of course—notably Sir Mordred Le Fay, the man who put the 'evil' in 'Medieval'—but he also falls in love, which, as we all know, is eternal.
Clocking in at a brisk 90 minutes under the direction of Alison C. Vesely, this First Folio production features exemplary attention to detail: With spectators barely four feet from the action, facial expressions and vocal nuances take on a far greater importance than in the great outdoors of the summer Shakespeare series. Recognizing this, the technical team includes Phil Timberlake overseeing the actors' dialects. David W. Mauer's incidental music replicates period melodies—as a walkman-generation teenager might imagine them. And Kevin McKillip supplies a broadsword duel on a stage barely wider than the opponents' two blades.
A sturdy cast led by Michael Patrick Sullivan as the perplexed Yankee sprint through multiple roles on a set by Angela Miller taking full advantage of the room's arched fireplace and wainscoted walls. Christian Gray makes a kind but clueless Arthur, and Robert Brady, a suitably menacing Mordred ( 'Darth Vader!' exclaims Hank ) . But Dana Wall's courtly Sir Lancelot steals every scene by flirting with lady playgoers seated in the front row. Now THAT's intimate theatre.