The following review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by Martin Zehr.

~~~~~


_Splittin' the Raft_. By Scott Kaiser. CreateSpace, 2017. Pp. 110.
Paperback. $11.99. ISBN 978-1-981954162.


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Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by
Martin Zehr


Copyright (c) 2018 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.


The genre of plays is one of the least-explored offshoots of Twain's
legacy, perhaps with good reason. He did have one unqualified success in
the format, "Colonel Sellers," based on characters from _The Gilded Age_
(1873), co-authored with Charles Dudley Warner. It had a run of over ten
years and earned Twain more in royalties than _Tom Sawyer_ or _Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn_, enticing Twain to make at least two more attempts to
repeat its success. The first, _Ah Sin_ (1877), co-written with Bret Harte,
had a run lasting a month, and _Is He Dead?_ (1898), titled after the
repeated joke line in _The Innocents Abroad_ (Twain likely "borrowed" the
line from Artemus Ward), was unpublished until 2003. There are also
snippets of other plays in _Mark Twain's Satires and Burlesques_
(University of California Press, 1967), suggesting that, whether for lucre
or "littery" reasons, Twain had as much difficulty relinquishing a
self-perception of a writer adept at all literary forms as he did giving up
any presumptions regarding his investing prowess.


There have been many sound film versions of _Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn_, dating from a 1931 version starring Jackie Coogan, largely devoid of
any hints of Twain's crafted clash between a "sound heart and a deformed
conscience."  More notable is the 1985 musical, _Big River_, with songs and
music by Roger Miller, a surprisingly entertaining, insightful and serious
treatment of Twain's work. In a more literary vein, Jon Clinch's _Finn_
(2007), shows what an imaginative writer is capable of when he tackles some
of the same themes of racism and violence, with a completely different
focus, in this case, Pap Finn. As Twain scholar R. Kent Rasmussen noted in
his Mark Twain Forum review of _Finn_ in 2007, "_Huckleberry Finn_ is the
sacred scroll of the Mark Twain world, and true believers do not take
kindly to seeing their scriptures tampered with."  Scott Kaiser, in his
play, _Splittin' the Raft_, dares to tamper with scripture in what he
describes as an "entertaining whirligig of a play," which "melds Mark
Twain's humor, Frederick Douglass' brilliant language, traditional
spirituals and provocative ideas about race relations in America . . ."


This distilled two-act version of the _Huck Finn_ saga features scenes from
Huck's tribulations under Widow Douglas, Pap's abuse and Huck's escape,
meeting Jim on Jackson's Island, the rattlesnake incident, the Huck-in-drag
meeting with Mr. Loftus, an introduction to the King and Duke, the "All
right then, I'll go to Hell" declaration, meeting Jim and Tom Sawyer at
Phelps's farm and the convoluted "freeing" of Jim. Even in this truncated
version, this is a lot to tackle in a 110-page play which takes about two
hours to perform. WorldCat database entries indicate at least one film
production of the play was made in 2005 running 116 minutes.


Omitted are many of the book's episodes such as the Shepherdson-Grangerford
feud, the mob confrontation with Colonel Sherburn and the attempted swindle
of the Wilks family. The unique twist in Kaiser's play is the appearance of
historical spokesperson, Frederick Douglass, an African American
abolitionist and a personal friend of Mark Twain who "tries to set the
record straight" about Mark Twain's masterpiece. Kaiser attempts to do this
by scripting portions of Douglass's own published works into the play as
asides and short lectures to the audience. The book features no
bibliography but Douglass scholars will likely recognize these passages
such as this one from an 1852 speech on the subject of religion and slavery:


"I have to inform you that the religion of the southern states, at this
time, is not only indifferent to the wrongs of slavery, it actually takes
sides with the oppressors. Many of its most eloquent Divines have taught
that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave
is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is
clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this
horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity" (17).


Douglass's frequent interjections are certainly relevant and informative
with respect to slavery and racism, but this technique, which at first
glance seems ingenious--a grafting together of two famous writers--quickly
becomes ponderous in the reading of the script. If a reader stitched all of
the Frederick Douglass asides together, one would have a brief lecture on
the history of American slavery. However, what appears to be most lacking
is a dramatic depiction of slavery that allows the audience to extract its
own emotionally-laden conclusions that are more likely to endure.


Kaiser employs only four actors who assume the various roles--a black male
and female and a white male and female. A "white woman" plays Huck, a
"black man" assumes the dual roles of Frederick Douglass and Jim and a
"white man" fills no less than fourteen roles, including a slave trader,
Mrs. Loftus, the king, Uncle Silas and Tom Sawyer. Jim's wife also makes a
brief, silent appearance. In a "melding" and sometimes confusing melange of
dialogue, the character of Douglass assumes a participant's role in the
action of the play speaking dialogue that Twain originally assigned to
Huck. The river is merely an implicit assumption, not an active component
which has the promise of both safety and adventure. All of this is more
than a qualitative divergence from the original, and, while qualifying as
artistic license, will undoubtedly be experienced as somewhat discomfiting
to some scholars of _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_.


The changes in costume which differentiate the play's characters "are
accomplished quickly and easily by exchanging simple icons, like a hat, or
a pair of glasses, or an apron, to represent each character . . . in full
view of the audience." (13). Whether these transitions are easily followed
by the audience cannot be determined from a reading of the script, but it
certainly can be imagined that these changes, accomplished on a stage which
contains all the props and costume articles, in addition to an accompanist
responsible for the play's sound effects, has the potential to be
disconcerting.


Kaiser does, for the most part, preserve the dialect in the speech which is
a critically important element of Twain's original, except, of course, for
Frederick Douglass, who "speaks with no discernible accent."  Whether
Douglass's appearance and speeches are disconcerting or inspiring cannot be
reasonably determined absent an actual viewing of the play and judging the
audience's reaction. However, his monologues and interspersed commentary
serve as interruptions to the cadence when simply reading the script.
Kaiser also, in deference to the original, includes the word "nigger," an
important authorial tribute to Twain's attempt to confront the reader with
the ingrained banality of racism. This is hardly a small point, especially,
as noted in the included "Development History" of the play, it has been
presented to high school audiences since its origin in 1998.


At the play's conclusion, Kaiser incorporates lines from a spiritual
reminding the audience that "There's one more river to cross," much in the
manner of the concluding chorus from a Greek tragedy. The lines are sung by
the entire ensemble, including Jim and Huck, an innovation that seems to be
disingenuous, considering Huck's tenuous relationship with religion and his
determination to "go to Hell" if necessary to maintain his relationship
with Jim.


_Splittin' the Raft_ is an attempt to tackle the core conflicts and issues
of _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ in a concentrated, live format by
dividing "the raft"--or stage--between Douglass's personality and words and
Mark Twain's classic masterpiece. Kaiser implicitly assumes that his
audience is generally aware of the basic Huck Finn story, its characters,
and the racial issues which provide its moral impetus. Reading the script
does not conjure up impressions of a "whirligig of a play." A whirligig
requires a little wind for motion, and the start-and-stop rhythm forced on
a reader by Douglass's interjections is a heavy-handed reminder that
_Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ achieves Twain's goals through natural
dialogue and credible storytelling that are anything but asides. The
success of _Splittin' the Raft_ on stage likely depends on the four cast
members themselves, especially Douglass, and the ability to connect with
the audience on an emotional and personal level.


Scott Kaiser is the Director of Company Development at the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, where he has been a member of the artistic
staff since 1993.

_____


ABOUT THE REVIEWER: Martin Zehr is a psychologist with the Marion Bloch
Neuroscience Institute in Kansas City, Missouri. His novel, _The
Desplazados_, (2017) was described by _Kirkus Reviews_ as "A journey of
reawakening and self-acceptance, well worth the trip."