Twain and Harte Live Again

"I detest him, because I think his work is 'shoddy.' His forte is pathos but there should be no pathos which does not come out of a man's heart. He has no heart, except his name, and I consider he has produced nothing that is genuine. He is artificial."

So said Samuel Clemens, more widely known as Mark Twain, in an 1895 interview about his former friend and mentor, fellow 19th century author Francis Bret Harte.

The crumbling of that relationship is the subject of a new drama by Sonora playwright Rick Foster, whose "Inventing the West: The Dangerous Friendship of Mark Twain and Bret Harte" received its world premiere July 4 and continues only through Sunday at Stage 3 Theater, 208 S. Green St. in Sonora.

The play is the final offering of the first California History Theater Festival presented by Duende: Drama & Literature.

In short, it's a stellar accomplishment, a gripping psychological tug-of-war between two literary giants whose writings defined America's view of the West.

The two started out as friends - with the better established Harte even editing Twain's early works - and ended as bitter enemies for reasons that are not historically clear.

Twain was extremely vocal in his contempt, while Harte never publicly addressed the split.

Foster brings the two together in an imaginary setting in winter 1902, the year of Harte's death. The place, according to the program, is "London, Bret Harte's Study, and the Vast Fields of Memory."

Harte, looking back on his life, conjures up Twain's image in an attempt to make sense of his estranged friend's vitriol. The personal slanders he can bear, but calling his work shoddy requires more justification.

Harte then proposes that the proceedings take the form of a trial, with Twain the prosecutor and Harte the defendant - and final judge.

From there unfolds a fascinating history as well as great human drama. Though Twain's words against Harte are often quoted, the man in Harte's study is more congenial, even reflective of his own former statements.

Viewers learn of the origin of the friendship, how each man's life evolved, their triumphs and failures, their personal shortcomings, their views on the grand scheme of life.

There are also extended quotations from "Huckleberry Finn," "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," and Harte's poetry.

A measure of the play's success is that all of this must be conveyed by two actors in a 90-minute stretch with no intermission. Given the depth of the material one might assume a certain dryness, yet Foster has crafted an intriguing tale that lapses neither in content nor delivery.

Hats go off to actors Randy Maple and Thomas F. Maguire, who respectively play Twain and Harte.

Each is responsible for volumes of dialogue, to say nothing of the emotion they must channel into their characters.

It's a remarkable achievement, worthy of encore performances in years to come.

Rick Foster directs, with costumes by Gail Russell. Ron Madonia designed the lights and the simple yet evocative set.

Gary Linehan