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A hit at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Dickens and Twain: Crossing the Pond was hailed by the Edinburgh Scotsman as "sure to apeal to all fans of Chales Dickens and Mark Twain, or indeed anyone seeking a wry perspective on Anglo-American relations." This production, directed by Tony Frost and featuring standout perfromances by Tom Watson and Todd Wronski, is ideal for festivals, conferences, cruise ships as well as conventional theatre presentation. Based entirely on the writings and speeches of Twain and Dickens, this 90 minute, two character play is full of character, humour and culural insight. Emplying a simple set consisting of two lecture platforms, "Dickens and Twain" merges Charles Dickens 1867 reading tour of America with Twain's subsequent public lectures presented in London in 1874.

Summer Dates Available For Further Information: wronski@dickinson.edu 717-245-1611

	Reviews from the Edinburgh Production Upper Right: "The friction forged from their views of slavery is enlightening." Lower Left: "Wronski conveys Twain's self-amused charisma capably." Bottom right: "..you can't take your eyes off Watson as Dickens gets caught up in his own reading

 

about the play

The speeches and writings of Mark Twain and Charles Dickens, two of the 19th century’s most illustrious personalities, served as the basis for playwright Todd Wronski as he compiled and edited this new play. Dickens and Twain historically and humorously provides an entertaining glimpse of the two authors, their views on British and American cultures, and their experiences giving reading and lecture tours in England and America.

 

why dickens and twain?

Along with their witty humor, Dickens and Twain are unique figures because of the great degree to which they reflect and embody the 19th century British and American cultures.  Whether discussing traveling by sea or the idiosyncrasies of the English language, Twain and Dickens provide engaging commentary on the two cultures.  Audiences will be sure to relate and discover that many of these ideas and aspects of the cultures remain apparent today.

 

developing the script

 

The script for Dickens and Twain: Crossing the Pond was developed over a period of two years by Todd Wronski, in consultation with director Tony Frost.  For about eighteen months, Wronski selected and sorted over a thousand selections from Twain and Dickens, taken from their letters, fictional writing, memoirs and public speeches.  While some of these were lengthy, most were less than a paragraph in length, often only a sentence or a phrase.  These selections were then carefully arranged, creating a piece of theatre composed almost entirely from the actual words of Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.

 

While there is a sentence or two that have been created to assist in the narrative clarity of the piece, and a perhaps five or six phrases that have had to be adapted to help the dramatic flow, all other adaptations of the words have been minor editorial adjustments of tense, pronouns, obscure colloquialisms or personal references.  One might, with relative accuracy, borrow the old advertising claim, that this play is “ninety nine and forty four one hundredths percent pure” Dickens and Twain.

 

The play has tried to keep as true to the letter and spirit of these two writers as it could, while exercising the freedom to inter-cut between writings of different styles and different time periods.  Dickens made two trips to America, one occurring before the Civil War and one after.  The play combines commentary and observations from both of these trips.  And while Twain did make a publicized lecture tour to London relatively soon after Dickens’ reading tour of America, he also traveled to England many other times through his life.  The play has likewise combined words and ideas from many different sources in creating its portrait of Twain’s complex Anglophilia