NYT/Reuters: Broadway Revival Reflects U.S. Debate on Evolution
By REUTERS
Published: April 15, 2007
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A revival of a major Broadway play that tackles the U.S. debate over Darwin's theory of evolution is more topical now than when it was first staged more than 50 years ago, the play's director and critics say.
"Inherit The Wind'' pits Charles Darwin's theory of evolution against the biblical account of creation. It is the fictional account of the 1925 Scopes Trial, otherwise known as the "monkey trial,'' where science teacher John Scopes was tried and convicted in Tennessee for teaching evolution.
The play's Tony Award-winning director, Doug Hughes, citing efforts in recent years to weaken the teaching of evolution in public schools in such states as Kansas, Pennsylvania and Georgia, said the work had more relevance today than when it first opened in 1955.
"The idea that 50 or more years later there is more controversy about its teaching than there may have been in '55 ... is amazing,'' said Hughes.
The play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee was written in response to McCarthyism -- the post-World War Two era of anti-communist fervor and investigations.
"The plot, the gizmo, of this play is actually aligned pretty closely with what is currently going on in the body politic,'' Hughes said....
Reviews of the latest revival were generally positive and hailed Christopher Plummer's performance. Most noted the timing of the play's subject matter, including a chilling line uttered by Plummer: "You don't suppose this kind of thing is ever finished, do you?''...
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-broadway-evolution.html
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