There's an avuncular quality to Hal Holbrook's beloved Mark Twain show, which the actor has been performing in various incarnations for more than 50 years. Folksy and homespun, this one-man production is a strong, sturdy slice of Americana, and you could tell from the pre-play chatter amongst the audience at the Saroyan Theatre on Friday night that many in the crowd had seen Holbrook perform the role before.
Yet there's also a certain amount of tension in the air, especially once Holbrook takes the stage and starts to remind us just how tart and caustic Twain could be when talking about two of his favorite subjects: politics and religion. That tension arises between two uneasy camps. On one side are those in the audience hoping and longing for the "easy" Twain to dominate the evening with pithy one-liners, generalized politican bashing and easy-to-digest anecdotes. (When in doubt, make a joke about Congress. It's practically guaranteed a laugh.) This is Twain as the 19th Century version of David Letterman: glib, relaxed and cranky. On the other side are those who hope more for the fiery Twain to materialize: the man who doesn't just taunt Congress but also takes aim at the irrationality and laziness of voters as well; the thundering prophet who recites the piercing "War Prayer," which mocks the act of invoking God to smite one's enemies.
With 15 solid hours of memorized material from the famed author and humorist, Holbrook shapes each of his shows differently. You never know exactly what he'll perform. (The run continues 8 p.m. Saturday.)
But it shouldn't be any surprise which Twain dominated on Friday. We're just weeks away from a presidential election and are experiencing traumatic economic times. Holbrook chose selections from Twain that not only highlighted the crassness of politicians -- always a crowd pleaser -- but the transgressions of voters as well.
]]> Part of the appeal of Twain's work is how timeless it can seem. Contemporary issues can be extrapolated from much of his material. For example, Holbrook recited a Twain routine in which he mocked Teddy Roosevelt for his blustery image and pompous demeanor. I'm sure that some Republicans in the audience on Friday immediately thought of a current Democratic analogy. Vice versa for the Democrats. It's ingenious humor, really: You have people laughing at the same jokes but with different protagonists.Yet Holbrook didn't let it end there. He followed up with some of Twain's most searing pronouncements on the dangers of kowtowing to a particular political party or religion. In the evening's most powerful moment, he (as Twain, of course) chided the audience for its insistence on "membership in the herd." We'd rather be popular than right, he told us. We don't have the independence to think for ourselves.
And even more powerful: You don't have to revere someone else's belief or opinion. But if you're really going to be a fully developed human being, you have to respect that person's right to have it. I won't say that the audience became uncomfortable at such stern philosophical pronouncements. But I think that all of us might have shifted uneasily, if only for a second, as we contemplated the vigor with which we make our opinions known in this country.
Holbrook is a master as Twain, of course, and as the years have gone by, he's grown ever more seamlessly into the tics and mannerisms of the role. More than that, he is so comfortable in the part -- and just think of how many hours of his life he's spent in thousands of performances playing Twain -- that both the actor and the role seem to co-exist in a state of cheerful interdependence. For hundreds of thousands of audience members, Holbrook IS Twain.
He's 83 now, and slowing down in terms of the number of Twain shows he performs a year. Fresno is lucky to get the chance to see such a seasoned version.
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