Show Guide: Huck Finn

Huck Finn has been living with the Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson, in the town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. They have been trying to “sivilize” him with proper dress and manners and raise him as a proper Christian boy. He finds this life of trying to be “Good” constraining and would rather live free and wild.

When Huck’s father hears that the boy has come into a wealthy new family situation, Pap threatens Huck and demands money. To avoid his father’s cruelty, Huck elaborately stages his own death and then escapes
to Jackson’s Island. There he finds Jim, Miss Watson’s runaway slave, on the island, and the two decide to hide out together.

To avoid danger of discovery, they decide to run away and float down the river on a raft that Jim makes. Sleeping during the day and traveling at night, they plan to connect with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois, which would lead them north into the free states where slavery is outlawed. But unfortunately they decide to rescue two conmen who introduce themselves as a king and a duke. Realizing Jim is a runaway and cares about the boy, they are able to use Jim and Tom to their advantage, swindling every person they meet with their cons.

After Huck decide to thwart their plans to rob two young women of their inheritance, the conmen decide to turn Jim in. They venture into a town that turns out to be where Tom Sawyer’s aunt and uncle live. While Huck pretends to be Tom, Uncle Silas captures Jim when he is tipped off to his whereabouts. Suddenly Huck and Tom find themselves faced with the prospect of having to rescue and release Jim, which Huck was always taught is wrong. After all they’ve been through together, will Huck turn Jim in? Or will he finally recognize that Jim is human being and a friend that should be free?

● The play Huck Finn is a swiftly-moving and significantly condensed adaptation of the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by celebrated American author and humorist Mark Twain. It was first published in the U.S. in 1885 and is considered one of the “Great American Novels” and most important books of the 19th century.

● The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been a controversial book since it was first published for both its content and its racial language. It has been a target for book-banning on numerous occasions. This adaptation does not use some of the controversial language that appears in the novel but stays true to its themes.

● Mark Twain, the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was once an apprentice steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. Huck is based on Tom Blankenship, a childhood playmate of Mark Twain’s whose father, was the model for Pap.

● Eric Coble, the playwright who adapted the play, struggled to write this expansive story onto a small stage that would engage rather than enrage the audience. He has said that in bringing the novel to that stage he wanted to explore the question, “What is the world telling you, and if it doesn’t line up with your heart how do you find an in-between?”