Stage Review: Rare Twain play a worthy comedy

Jeff White (left) plays artist Jean-Francois Millet who pretends to be dead and reappears as the lovely widow Daisy Tillou in Germantown Community Theatre's production of Mark Twain’s comedy "Is He Dead?"

Mark Twain was not known for authoring plays, but about seven years ago, a surprised Twain scholar found the unproduced 1898 manuscript of the farcical "Is He Dead?"

It's not Twain at his blazing best -- maybe writing for the stage was an itch he just had to scratch -- yet it's still a worthy entertainment, with an adaptation by contemporary playwright David Ives.

Jeff White (left) plays artist Jean-Francois Millet who pretends to be dead and reappears as the lovely widow Daisy Tillou in Germantown Community Theatre's production of Mark Twain’s comedy "Is He Dead?"

The play was staged on Broadway two years ago and now has been given an uproarious treatment at Germantown Community Theatre.

As directed by the reliable Marler Stone, "Is He Dead?" blends deception, romance and unintended consequences with fast-paced, broad silliness. The main character is Jean-Franois Millet, the famous mid-19th century French artist, except that it's not -- Twain impishly appropriated Millet's name and artwork, but spun out a fictional farce instead.

In the play, Millet is an impoverished young man who, with the urging of a couple of friends, decides his work would be worth more if he were dead. They contrive a plot to have him "die" of a dreaded, unspoken disease. So he won't have to actually disappear, he stays on the scene as his widowed sister to manage affairs (and keep turning out increasingly profitable artworks on the sly).

The girlfriend doesn't know, other friends aren't part of the conspiracy, cross-dressing is prolific, confusion spins out of control.

Happily, Jeff White in both roles as Millet and the Widow Tillou is a gifted comedic presence. His face radiates both sweetness and mischief and it's impossible not to wish Millet/Tillou well in his/her deception.

The supporting cast weighs in with ample doses of slapstick. Local stage veterans Kent Mathis, Randal Cooper and Emily Peckham rollick throughout.

"Is He Dead"

At the Germantown Community Theatre through Sept. 27. Tickets are $15-$20, show times 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2;30 p.m. Sundays. Information: 754-2680; germantowncommunitytheatre.org.

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