The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, by Mark Twain by David Carkeet
Hadleyburg, a village famous for its honesty, gets a surprising economic stimulus when a sack of gold worth forty thousand dollars is mysteriously delivered to the house of a prominent citizen, along with instructions for tracking down the man who deserves it based on a specific incident in the past. But the entire project is a sham, concocted by the man who delivered the sack because the town offended him...
Hadleyburg, a village famous for its honesty, gets a surprising economic stimulus when a sack of gold worth forty thousand dollars is mysteriously delivered to the house of a prominent citizen, along with instructions for tracking down the man who deserves it based on a specific incident in the past. But the entire project is a sham, concocted by the man who delivered the sack because the town offended him years earlier. Through a series of clever manipulations, this man lays a trap for Hadleyburg’s prominent citizens, and their dishonesty is exposed in a climactic town meeting. The play is a close adaptation of a Mark Twain short story of the same title (1899). The cast size is 12, with doubling, 11 (4 females, 7 males). The play runs 50 minutes and can stand alone or combine with other short adaptations for a two-act evening of Mark Twain (see "Six by Twain" on this site for a description of the other plays, each running about 10 minutes). The plays can be previewed and downloaded at Drama Notebook. Info is at davidcarkeet.com. Contact: carkeetdavid@gmail.com