Mark Twain wrote a number of short prose pieces in the voices of Adam and Eve between 1893 and 1910. It was only after Twains wife, Olivia Langdon Clemens, died that they were all published together.
That could be because Twains understanding of the biblical couples relationship was autobiographical, speculates C.W. Marshall, who directs The Diaries of Adam and Eve at the Jericho Arts Centre. The production is part of the Ensemble Theatre Companys festival of three plays in repertory July 12 to Aug. 10.
Certainly as someone whos married, I find myself directing and choreographing conversations that I have had with my wife, Marshall said.
Written in diary form, The Diaries of Adam and Eve recreates their first days, portraying Adam as a bit of a recluse who is ill-prepared for the arrival of Eve, a talkative, emotionally charged woman.
This is an honest relationship that we see developing over time, Marshall said. And its one that is uncluttered by other people so that the couple are forced to engage with each other and really come to terms with what it is to live with somebody else, what it is to feel things and experience things with somebody else when you know that fundamental sort of otherness, that we never really do know whats going on in the minds of the people that we share space with.
David Birney adapted Twains work for the stage in 1990 and he and his then-wife Meredith Baxter, of TVs Family Ties fame, acted in the two-hander that Marshall says explores their budding romance alongside the traumatic Fall, after Adam and Eve disobey God and are expelled from paradise.
I find it moving every time I watch it, Marshall said.
After the Fall, Adam and Eve need to figure out how theyre going to move forward.
Marshall sees The Diaries of Adam and Eve as a reflection of the changing world Twain inhabited in the late 1800s.
The way that humans relate to one another was changing fundamentally in the 1890s and in some ways that process has continued to accelerate, he said.
Tariq Leslie, the artistic director of Ensemble Theatre Company who will play Adam and direct one of the three other plays, Thomas Middletons Women Beware Women. Leslie asked Marshall to direct The Diaries of Adam and Eve because he knows Marshall, a senior Greek professor in the Classics department at the University of B.C., favours directing text-heavy plays.
I dont want to direct a play that I think someone else can do as well, Marshall said. Ive spent my life reading ancient Greek poetry. Its just a different experience. I spend my life looking at plays that only survive in words; everything else needs to be brought to them. I find a value in finding something to dramatize in what could just be a series of recited speeches.
Marshall also delves into popular culture. He founded improv comedy troupes for beer money in the late 1980s and early 1990s that are still going and co-edited a book called Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica.
He is pleased the ambitious folks behind Ensemble Theatre Company are producing plays not often chosen by other Vancouver companies. In addition to The Diaries, Ensemble will present Aaron Sorkins The Farnsworth Invention, a true story about a 14-year-old farm boy who invents television in 1921 and goes up against a corporate giant, as well as Women Beware Women.
People want to be challenged by theatre, Marshall said. Putting on a play I dont know if its ever been done in Vancouver before but Women Beware Women, something that isnt Shakespeare where youre going just for the name recognition but youre being transported back to one of the most dynamic periods of English theatre, ever, is valuable to make available to the community.
For more information, see ensembletheatrecompany.ca.
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