BIG RIVER: THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN Bohemian Theatre Ensemble
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But there’s another reason for the novel’s enduring power: the love story at the tale’s heart, the brotherly bond that evolves between two outcasts, white-trash Huck and escaped slave Jim, who team up to flee fictitious Saint Petersburg, Missouri, by rafting the Mississippi.
Jim seeks liberty in the free state of Illinois, and Huck wants to get away from his alcoholic, abusive father and the god-fearing foster mother who intends to “sivilize” him. Along the way they’re joined by two scoundrels—the so-called Duke and King, who force the runaways to assist them in their nefarious schemes, including a plot to swindle a bereaved family out of their property. Over the course of rollicking, increasingly dangerous adventures, Huck and Jim forge a kinship, which is finally cemented when Huck plays a mean trick on Jim and then—against every inclination bred in him by growing up white in 1840s Missouri—works up the strength to “humble myself to a nigger” and apologize.
Among the supporting cast, Courtney Crouse is comically over-the-top as Tom Sawyer, providing contrast to Huck’s simple humanity, Anna Hammonds sings beautifully as Mary Jane, and John Leen and Sean Thomas are both funny and scary as the Duke and the King—initially lovable rogues whose ruthlessness imperils the heroes.
