Mark Twain’s: The Diaries of Adam and Eve

September 2018 

Mark Twain’s: The Diaries of Adam and Eve 

Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve.  Adapted by Heather Pattengale-Zacharias, Morris Ertman. Directed by Morris Ertman, Rosebud Theatre,  Sept. 2019. Opera House, Rosebud. 

A whimsical journey from the garden of Eden, to the wilderness, and back (just not in the way you expect). This whitty play shows the innocence of Adam and Eve as they discover the wider world around them and begin to discover one another as well. It is a metaphor for all relationships, speaking of the innocence of young love, the delight in discovering someone else, like you, and even the bittersweet reality that we don’t really know how dear our love is until it is gone. 

What struck me about this production is that it is so clearly an atheistic worldview, even though it uses biblical characters. What made the Garden of Eden paradise in the Bible was not the perfection of the physical space, but the daily presence of God among humanity. In Mark Twain’s version, this presence is reduced to a “voice” or a “feeling” that the two characters have and could just as easily be making up.  The paradise of “God with us” is replaced by the love that Adam and Eve have for each other. This is made clear in the last sentence of the play, when Adam says that Eden was wherever Eve was. It’s a cute sentiment, but it speaks of a worldview that attempts to replace man’s relationship with the divine with a man’s relationships with a woman, which is a terrifying weight for any relationship to carry. 

This production was clever, delightful, and imaginative, but for me the message was lacking. In my life I have discovered God as my friend, my comforter, and my greatest support. Even with a husband and a healthy marriage, there is no comparison between my earthly relationship and my relationship with the divine. And it was exactly that relationship that was missing in Diaries of Adam and Eve.