Leave it to Mark Twain to relocate the Garden of Eden to Niagara Falls. He did so twice-initially, in ”Extracts From Adam`s Diary,” which he wrote in the early 1890s, and nearly 15 years later in ”Eve`s Diary.”
Actor David Birney has combined portions from the two works and pieced them together in ”The Diaries of Adam and Eve,” a lively, clever, humorous hour that airs on PBS` ”American Playhouse” series at 9 p.m. Wednesday on WTTW-Ch. 11.
Dressed in a tuxedo minus the jacket (which reveals a set of red suspenders), Birney also casts himself as Adam, who starts off by lamenting that the ”new creature with the long hair” is ”always hanging around.”
Furthermore, she talks too much, eats too much fruit and is always naming things before he gets a chance.
On the other hand, Eve (Meredith Baxter Birney)-dressed in a prim, high-necked, puffy-sleeve white dress that evokes ice-cream socials-reveals that she feels ”like an experiment,” and concludes that her mate is a reptile.
(”It has no hips, it tapers like a carrot. When it stands, it spreads itself apart like a derrick. So I suppose it is a reptile, although it may be architecture.”)
For the rest of the time, the twosome briskly exchange diverse thoughts, from the meaning of the term ”death” to the house rules. (Adam reveals that the serpent told Eve the forbidden fruit was not apples but chestnuts-”a figurative term meaning an aged and moldy joke.”) And when Cain is born, he is totally befuddled by the ”different, new kind of animal,” which he speculates may be a fish or a bear. (”She caught it while I was up country trapping on the north shore of the Erie; caught it in the timber a couple of miles from our dugout.”)
Toward the end, Eve examines her deepening feelings for her companion.
(”This love is not a product of reasoning and statistics. This love just comes, and cannot explain itself. And doesn`t need to.”) The feeling is mutual. Years later, when Adam stands over Eve`s grave, he concludes,
”Wheresoever she was, there was Eden.”
Charmingly whimsical, ”The Diaries of Adam and Eve” benefits from the crisp direction by William Woodman (formerly of Chicago`s Goodman Theatre) and the simple, effective set by Cheryl Denson. David Birney provides a nicely sardonic tone to the proceedings and his wife is adequate, although for some reason, I kept wishing the role were being played by Blythe Danner.
The production was taped last summer during a live performance at the Plaza Theater in Dallas. Since then, ironically, there has been off-stage trouble in Paradise. At last report, the Birneys were headed for Splitsville. `THE DIARIES OF ADAM AND EVE`
Directed by William Woodman, adapted by David Birney from two stories by Mark Twain and produced by Norris J. Chumley. With David Birney and Meredith Baxter Birney. Airing at 9 p.m. Wednesday on WTTW-Ch. 11.
`The Forgotten`
”The Forgotten” (8 p.m. Wednesday on USA cable) concerns the agony of six Green Berets who are released from a prison deep in the Vietnamese jungle after 17 years and brought back to an Army base outside of Bonn for debriefing-only to find themselves wrapped in a series of machinations involving corruption and betrayal.
Absorbing for the first hour, it then settles into a conventional shoot-em-up, but is worthwhile for the solid performances brought in by Steve Railsback as a Special Forces lieutenant suffering from mental torment, Keith Carradine as the steady commander, Bill Lucking as the POWs` staunchest supporter and Stacy Keach as their insidiously nasty National Security Council interrogator. James Keach directed the screenplay he co-authored with Railsback.
