Sea Tea Improv gets ‘R Rated’ with some of Mark Twain’s raciest writings

Sparks flew as Sea Tea Improv presented “R Rated Twain,” a selection of racy and salacious writings by Mark Twain at The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford on Thursday night.

The local improv comedy empire, which holds classes and performances at their theater space on Asylum Street, and the Mark Twain House & Museum have had a long fruitful relationship. One institution celebrates one of the greatest humorists in American history, the other makes up fresh jokes about modern-day situations that Twain could barely imagine.

Anyone who’s read beyond the basic Twain books has encountered his more salacious side. Many of his more challenging writings, not just on sexual subjects but about religion or war, weren’t published until long after his death in 1910.

In an introduction to this performance, Twain was quoted as saying “profanity is more necessary to me than immunity from colds.” It was noted, however, that the words that got Twain’s novels banned from libraries during his lifetime tended to be low-threshold offenses like “Hell” and “Damn,” and a character both “itching and scratching.”

This was a script-in-hand performance with eight actors from the Sea Tea Improv comedy troupe standing at a lectern and microphones. The low-action presentation kept the material reasonable. One actor’s impersonation of a monkey made you happy they weren’t in costumes.

A key part of “R Rated Twain” was a light staging of Twain’s “1601.” It’s a scripted comedy sketch featuring Queen Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Ben Jonson and other illustrious personages. One of them farts. No one admits to it until Raleigh says “I did it but to clear my nether throat.” The piece is similar in tone to a 1973 “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” sketch about Oscar Wilde but was written 93 years earlier.

A whole section of this hour-long exercise in literary vulgarity was devoted to Twain (or Samuel Clemens in his home life) insulting people. He unloaded on everyone from his private secretary Isabel Lyon (“a liar, a forger, a thief, a hypocrite, a drunkard, a sneak, a humbug, a traitor, a conspirator, a filthy-minded and salacious slut pining for seduction”), his editor Elijah Bliss and the local utility company for randomly shutting off his gas. He sniped at Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy, President Theodore Roosevelt and fellow bestselling authors Bret Harte, James Fennimore Cooper and Jane Austen. Of Austen he said, “Jane Austen? Why, I go so far as to say that any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book.”

The context was lacking in this 19th-century verbal smackdown. Those who have read the books about Twain’s relationship with Lyon, which contain strong accusations of egregious behavior on both sides, Twain comes off as a bully with these remarks.

As for his opinions of other authors, some were directed at their work or talent but other times at their personal character. (Harte owed him money and would stay too long when he visited.)

The weakest part of the program was its finale, an original 10-minute, three-character play by David Ryan Polgar that was included in the “R Rated Twain” presentation when it was first done a decade ago at City Steam Brewery before the Mark Twain House & Museum had its own performance space. In it, a resurrected Twain plays “wingman” to a guy on the prowl for female companionship in a bar. It turns out that Twain’s witticisms are more captivating than standard cruising lines. The scene has not aged well and was at odds with the main theme of the evening: Twain cursed a lot.

The museum’s assistant curator Mallory Howard had her own anecdote concerning Twain’s NSFW jocularity. When she first started working there 15 years ago, she was doing research and found a letter from Twain asking a supplier for “one thousand odorless condoms,” adding that “I’ll provide the odor myself.”

The racy readings were preceded by the finals of the Hartford on the Rocks cocktail mixology competition. Attendees voted by placing tiddlywinks at the tables of the bartender they liked best. The winner was Aaron Stepka of Drink Mechanics, whose concoction involved rye whiskey, local gala apples, local honey, ginger, lemon and cardamom.

A little sour, a little wry, with a healthy kick to it. Twain would approve.

“R Rated Twain” is very much in keeping with the sort of off-kilter literary programming the Twain House specializes in. Upcoming events include “Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours” of the House (with an emphasis on supernatural subjects) through Oct. 27; virtual conversations with authors Kai Cheng Thom (“Falling Back in Love with Being Human,” Oct. 26), Mitch Horowitz (“Modern Occultism,” Oct. 30) and Jon Clinch (“The General and Julia,” a novel featuring Mark Twain’s pal Ulysses S. Grant, Nov. 16); an in-person confab with novelists Fiona Davis and Ann Leary about Davis’ new book “The Spectacular” (Nov. 9) and a virtual appearance by Ralph Nader on Nov. 18.

As for Sea Tea Improv, in the new few weeks the company is presenting everything from improvised campfire stories (Oct. 27) and an improvised horror movie (Oct. 28 and 31) to the usual weekly improv comedy nights, family shows and “Improv Mixer” events.