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ENTERTAINMENT

‘Inherit the Wind’ opens at The Barn

BILL NUTT
CORRESPONDENT

One of the most important works of art in 2015 may be a 60-year-old play inspired by events that occurred 90 years ago.

That is the opinion of director Todd Mills and the principal actors in “Inherit the Wind.” The courtroom drama by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee will be staged at the Barn Theatre in Montville from tonight through April 4.

“This play is absolutely relevant today,” says Mills. “It’s about being able to think for yourself, about being your own person. It’s about the place of religion. These are still things that we talk about today.”

The play, which premiered in 1955, is a fictionalized account of the famous “Monkey” trial of 1925, in which John Scopes, a Tennessee schoolteacher, was tried for teaching evolution to his high school students.

The case was a sensation in part because of the titanic figures involved. One of the prosecutors: William Jennings Bryan, three-time Presidential candidate and acclaimed orator. Defending Scopes was the legendary defense attorney Clarence Darrow.

In the play, the teacher is Bertram Cates (played at the Barn by William Darche of Morristown). The lawyers are prosecutor Matthew Harrison Brady (Kevern Cameron of Hamburg) and defense attorney Henry Drummond (Christopher Gibbs of Fanwood).

Putting things in a cynical perspective is journalist E. K. Hornbeck (John Hopko of Lake Hopatcong), a thinly fictionalized version of H. L. Mencken.

Cameron, in an e-mail interview, notes that “Inherit the Wind” is sometimes portrayed simplistically. Cates and Drummond earn audience’s sympathy, while Brady is almost cartoonish in his religious zeal and his gluttony.

“As the play has aged, directors have looked more deeply, past the white vs. black hats, exploring the characters, looking for a more subtle structure,” Cameron writes.

“The challenge of playing Brady is to escape Lawrence and Lee’s melodrama,” Cameron continues. “From the moment Brady walks on, he’s ridiculous. The audience can’t wait for Drummond to stick a pin in this gasbag.”

Cameron adds, “How do you show Brady gross, obtuse, enormously vain, (and) ignorant, yet a consummate debater, quick, passionate, and tragic in the distance between his best and his worst?”

Ironically, though he is playing Drummond, Gibbs says he would be perfectly happy if he had been cast as Brady. “(Cameron) has the better part, because Brady has such a broad range of response,” Gibbs says.

“Drummond is cranky all the time,” Gibbs says with a chuckle. “He’s a little bit one-note. (Cameron) gets to show all the changes in mood. He’s a treat to work with.”

Another problematic character, Mills observes, is Rev. Brown (Hank Barre of Basking Ridge), whose daughter Rachel (Elizabeth Sherpa of Denville) loves Cates. Brown is such a zealot that is willing to condemn both Cates and Rachel to hellfire.

On the other hand, Mills points out that Brown – and, in fact, almost all the major characters – offer great opportunities for actors. “The biggest challenge is finding so many solid actors for so many roles,” he says. “I’m pleased with the cast we have.”

For a play that was originally intended as a rather specific condemnation of McCarthyism, the lessons of “Inherit the Wind” have proven durable, Cameron writes.

He notes that “85 years later, we are still fighting the same absurd battle that now extends to climate change. Seemingly intelligent people resist overwhelming scientific consensus for religious convictions.”

The playwrights “wanted audiences to think about ... political forces that censored opposing thought,” Cameron adds. “Today, political sides denounce the other, not as wrong on the evidence, but morally evil. ‘Inherit the Wind’ has been there, is there.”

‘INHERIT THE WIND’

WHAT: The award-winning courtroom drama by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee explores such issues as freedom of thought and the relationship between faith and reason. The play is a fictionalized account of the Scopes “monkey” trial, in which a Tennessee school teacher was put on trial for teaching evolution to high school students.

WHEN: Performances include:

• 8 p.m. Fridays, tonight, March 20, and 27 and April 3

• 2 p.m. Saturday, March 14

• 8 p.m. Saturdays, March 21 and 28 and April 4

• 2 p.m. Sundays, March 15, 22, and 29

WHERE: The Barn Theatre, 32 Skyline Dr., Montville

TICKETS: $18 ($16 for seniors and students at matinees only).

INFORMATION: 973-334-9320 or www.barntheatre.org