This weekend is the closing weekend for the hilariously funny and entertaining comedy, Mark Twain’s long-lost 1898 play Is He Dead? as adapted by the brilliant David Ives. It is a spirited caper set in Paris about art, greed, gender and celebrity. Peter Heck, of the Kent News calls it “a ray of comic sunshine from a part of Twain’s career where most of his work was scathing commentary on ‘the damned human race’.” The production is sponsored by CNB Bank of Maryland “where good things are happening.”
Madame Caron (Jane Jewell) and Madame Bathilde (Nita Wieczoreck) interrogate Widow Tillou (Dylan Wayne) as Dutchy (Dylan Lyles) and O’Shaughnessy (Nic Carter) admire the Widow’s control in “Is He Dead?” playing at the Church Hill Theatre.
The plot revolves around Jean-Francois Millet, a young painter of genius, who is engaged to Marie but deeply in debt to his dealer, who threatens foreclosure and ruin unless Marie marries him instead. Millet realizes the best solution is to die, as only dead painters achieve fame and fortune. He fakes his own death, passes himself off as his sister, and encounters a whole new set of problems. How will he ever get out of a dress, return to life and marry Marie? Come to Church Hill Theatre and find out.
Director Bonnie Hill, who most recently directed CHT’s popular Over the River and Through the Woods, has assembled a stellar cast and crew to recreate Mark Twain’s vision of Paris in the 1840s. Included are Dylan Wayne as Millet, Colin Graves as Chicago, Dylan Lyles as Dutchy, Nic Carter as O’Shaughnessy, Bob Chauncey as Papa Leroux, Taylor Gorychi as Marie, Nina Sharp as Cecile, Patrick Fee as Andre’ Bastien, Nita Wieczoreck as Madame Bathilde, Jane Jewell as Madame Caron, and Howard Mesick in the multiple roles of Basil Thorpe, Claude Riviere, and Charlie.
Is He Dead? plays its last weekend April 11 through April 13, with shows at 8 pm on Friday and Saturday and 2 pm on Sunday. Tickets are $18 for adults and $10 for students. Reservations can be made by calling the box office at 410-758-1331 or online at churchhilltheatre.org
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