The late-life friendship that developed between Ulysses S. Grant and Mark Twain was tailor-made for dramatization.
So it’s a bit surprising that apparently no one has gotten around to putting those two heavy-hitting historical characters on a stage together. Until now.
Metropolis Performing Arts Centre Executive Director Joe Keefe and longtime Mark Twain specialist Richard Henzel are presenting “A Conversation with Grant and Twain” May 23 in Arlington Heights.
“It’s a great opportunity, from a theatrical point of view, that the greatest general in the history of the United States and the greatest writer the country has produced became friends,” said Keefe, a Civil War aficionado who has portrayed Grant many times in one-man shows at historical societies. “Yet the story of their friendship is relatively untouched.”
The setting for this “Conversation” is the front porch of Grant’s estate in the summer of 1885, shortly before the former president died of throat cancer. Twain and Grant’s relationship deepened after Grant lost everything in a financial swindle — and hoped to repair the damage by writing his memoirs. A hope turned into a reality when Twain’s publishing company paid Grant the largest advance in publishing history for the book.
In addition, Twain (who was working on “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” at the time) visited Grant’s estate on several occasions to provide moral support and compare notes on life — events that provided double star billing for the crowds of picnickers who assembled on Grant’s lawn for a final chance to see him in person.
“We’re trying to replicate one of Twain’s visits as closely as possible,” said Keefe, a Glencoe resident who worked as a performer, director and producer at Second City for 20 years in addition to side careers as an actor, playwright, script doctor and TV producer. “Richard begins the show with 20 minutes as Twain — and nobody does him better — then I do 15 or 20 minutes solo. Then we sit down for an unscripted conversation in character before taking questions from the audience.
“One thing I learned playing Grant at those historical society shows is that people love the idea of being able to talk to famous people from the past and ask them questions.”
Keefe says he has no concern about speaking for him because he’s made an exhaustive study of Grant over the years.
“He was an awful, though always interesting, president and an abject failure as a businessman. Yet he was a military genius with a stunning combat record. And he was arguably the most famous man in the world during the latter part of his life,” he said.
“I think he’s emblematic, in many ways, of the spirit of the United States. He has such a compelling story of unbelievable success and unbelievable failure. He was a self-made man, a brilliant man, a flawed man, a very aggressive man at times, but also very tender and very giving. And he rose from very little to become tremendously powerful and famous and successful — except for the times when he was tremendously unsuccessful.
“All those dualities and contradictions are spellbinding because the highs are unbelievably high and the lows are tragically low. His life was like a great opera. A great American opera.”
‘A Conversation with Grant and Twain’
3 p.m. May 23
Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, 111 West Campbell St., Arlington Heights
Admission is $25; $15 seniors and veterans
(847) 577-2121; http://www.metropolisarts.com
