A Darker but No Less Funnier Side of America’s Most Beloved Humorist – Mark Twain…
First published fifty years after his death, Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth is a little known work of the celebrated American author. It is comprised of sarcastic essays concerning morality and religion, written during a difficult time in Twain’s life (1904–09); when he was deeply in debt and had recently lost his wife and one of his daughters.
Irrepressibly funny and blasphemous, Twain has Satan, with his quick silver tongue, cleverly and convincingly review and interpret events from the Garden of Eden through the Fall and the Flood, this is vintage Twain: sharp, witty, imaginative, complex, and wildly funny.
Archangel Satan, having been banished for a celestial day for his sarcasm regarding the creation of Natural Law and Mankind, visits the Earth and writes eleven letters to his friends; the Archangels “back home”. In these he relates his discoveries and observations on the curious proceedings of earthly life and the nature of man’s religions. These commentaries express Twain’s discomfort with, and disdain for, Christianity; both as a theological position and as a lifestyle.
He devilishly argues that the Law of God and the Laws of Nature cannot be disobeyed; Mankind is, therefore, a blameless, innocent fool to be pitied. Moreover, man’s naïve notion of a Heaven filled with a multitude of clanging harps and all day singing, monotonous prayer and the lack of sex is certainly nothing to strive for.
Featuring Joerg Witzsch as GOD, Derrick Jenkins as SATAN, Kirsten Schulze as ARCHANGEL 444, Tonia Hernandez as ARCHANGEL 555 with Live Music by Christian Kamm – Piano & Marcus Lange – Alto Saxophone
Premiere Performance: Monday, June 4 at 20:00 hrs in MERLIN
New English American Theater Stuttgart 