The story is part of everyone's heritage, its literary turns as familiar as the curves on U. S. 61 between here and Hannibal, its characters as well-known to us as our own relatives. And when the famous fence is the first thing we see as we enter the Rep, we settle in for an anticipated — and neatly provided — evening of pleasure.
Of course there are dark moments in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," which opened last night, but we need them so that we can not only be as brave as Tom, but also so we may receive extra pleasure from the bright ones. Laura Eason's new adaptation, on a tour with New York two stops away, is breezy and comfortable, and the staging, especially the work of director Jeremy B. Cohen and lighting designer Robert M. Wierzel, is glorious.
Wierzel's touch is never better than during the fence-whitewashing, when the fence turns white, board by board by board, as a variety of actors wield a brush that never saw real whitewash. It's a little thing, but the sort of thing that brings the magic to live theater. Several shadow scenes, with the actors in silhouette against the backdrop, are almost as impressive.
Only Tom (red-haired Tim McKiernan) and Becky (cute, round-faced Hayley Treider) play one person. The other six cast members, making their Rep debuts (as are McKiernan and Treider) play one or two characters and also are part of the ensemble, townspeople of St. Petersburg, Mo. (Mark Twain's name for Hannibal), church members, pupils and the like. Church attendance is bolstered by a half-dozen, half-complete mannequins who fill the pews, bobbing their heads in time to the sermon by Michael D. Nichols, an excellent preacher. Nichols also portrays Injun Joe and is properly fear-inducing.
Young McKiernan, an Arizonan whose first professional acting job was to originate the role of Tom in the play's premiere in Hartford, Conn., in the spring of 2010, has the proper attitude, and a lovely, totally false bravado most of the time. He dropped out of the cast for a while, then returned for a stop in Louisville before coming here. Kansas City is the next stop.
Treider is a proper 19th-century schoolgirl, but with several of the attributes shown by her 21st-century descendants. Nance Williamson charms as the older women, Aunt Polly and the Widder Douglass, and other hard-working cast members included Robbie Tann as Huckleberry Finn, Justin Fuller as Joe Harper, Joseph Adams as Muff Potter and Nate Trinrud as Sid, a half- brother to Tom and a complete prig to the world. Huck has a bright moment when he appears after a makeover by the Widder. Words are unnecessary for the effect.
Daniel Ostling's set uses chairs and window frames that drop from the ceiling, ladders as cave entrances and considerable movement of the scenery to keep up with the action. Lorraine Venburg designed the period clothing and Tommy Rapley was the fight and movement director.
The play flattens a little here and there, especially in the first act when Tom, Huck and Joe Harper have run away from home to an island in the Mississippi and suddenly get very bored. It also ends rather abruptly, but we're in Tom's dream, and there are other adventures down the road, just no more for tonight.
It's a good piece of theater for the holiday season. The younger segment of the audience will be thrilled to learn that the books they're reading in school can have other lives.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer opened at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis on Dec. 2 and will run through Dec. 23
— Joe
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I just got home from seeing it and thought it was wonderful. My favorite show at the Rep so far this season!