The white suit was a costume—so who was the real Mark Twain?
"Interpreting Twain" looks at how Mark Twain has been interpreted (and misinterpreted) through the years and asks why it's so important for a new generation to follow the man in the white suit.
Acting
Hal Holbrook's decades of embodying Twain—living archive on screen.
Writing
Sharp interrogation of why we need our icons sanitized.
Director
Paul Cotter
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Twain's white suit became his trademark only in his final years—he originally wore it to a lecture about copyright law, not for drama.
Hal Holbrook performed his one-man 'Mark Twain Tonight!' show from 1954 to 2017—spanning twelve presidents and nearly the entire history of television.
US
