By Michelle Hines, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-5371
Posted 9-3-08
GREENSBORO, NC – “Big River,” the musical version of Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn,” ain’t no musical lecture.
John Gulley will direct UNCG Theatre’s production of the Tony Award-winning show, which plays in the newly renovated Aycock Auditorium Wednesday through Sunday, Oct. 1-5. He wants Twain’s earthy social commentary, especially his honest depiction of racism, to strike audiences subtly.
“Twain was essentially a storyteller -- not an essayist but a storyteller,” says Gulley, a UNCG theatre professor. “He knew that the message is going to come through more authentically through a story than through a lecture. The first thing I want people to experience is the wonderful adventure. It’s an amazing, fun, scary journey. The last thing Twain would have wanted is for people to be sagely nodding their heads at the end of the novel.”
“Huck Finn,” written in the post-Civil War era, likely shook up the status quo when it was first published in America in 1885. Huck is white and poor, and burdened by an abusive alcoholic father he calls “Pap.” He joins forces with a runaway slave named Jim. Together they make a perilous trip down the Mississippi River.
The musical version, which opened on Broadway in 1985, features music by the legendary Roger Miller. The song list includes Pap Finn’s satirical take on “Guv’ment” and Jim’s ballad, “Free at Last.”
“It’s really Huck’s coming of age story,” Gulley says. “He learns that actions have consequences, and that the color of Jim’s skin doesn’t make him any less of a person. It would really have been shocking that this 14-year-old white kid befriends this slave, a piece of property. But Jim has a large part in Huck’s growing up. He challenges Huck, calls him on his prejudices.”
Yet Jim and Huck have more in common than meets the eye: Jim wants freedom from slavery while Huck wants to escape the shackles of American culture. Huck prefers the unknown risks of the western frontier to adoption and “civilization.”
“He could be dead in three months,” Gulley says. “That’s how much freedom means to Huck.”
Show times are: Oct. 1 and 2, 7 p.m.; Oct. 3 and 4, 8 p.m.; Oct. 3, 10 a.m.; and Oct. 4 and 5, 2 p.m. Cost is $15 for adults; $12 for seniors, students and children; $9 for groups of 10 or more and UNCG Alumni Association members; and $7 for UNCG students.
For tickets, call the University Box Office at (336) 334-4849 or visit http://boxoffice.uncg.edu.
