Is He Dead?

A new play by Mark Twain — mostly — arrived on Broadway late in 2007, more than a century after it was written. Its title, "Is He Dead?," makes it sound like a reference to the famous quotation attributed to the great comic novelist, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” However, the leading character in this silly farce isn’t Twain himself but, perplexingly, French painter Jean- François Millet.

The impoverished artist can hardly give away his canvases, so his friends recommend he start rumors of his own demise. Everyone knows, after all, that the value of a painter’s works goes up after his death. The character takes their advice and spends the rest of the play running around in a dress, pretending to be his own sister.

It sounds like the old favorite "Charley’s Aunt" — and there might indeed be an influence, because that play became a hit before Twain wrote "Is He Dead?" in 1898. Scholars knew of the piece, but it only made it onstage only when adapted by contemporary playwright David Ives, no mean writer of farce himself, adapted it. Who knows who contributed which jokes? It shouldn’t matter, if the audience laughs hard enough.

WaterTower Theatre is giving the play its regional premiere with a decidedly lively cast under the direction of James Paul Lemons. Kevin Moore and Jessica Cavanagh just headlined WaterTower’s own contribution to its Out of the Loop Fringe Festival, "My First Time." Bruce Elliott, Paul Taylor, Randy Pearlman, Jane Willingham and Nancy Sherrard have all played major roles for the company before. Ben Bryant, Elizabeth Kaminski, Mark Shum and Shane Strawbridge are making their WaterTower debuts.

-- Lawson Taitte