Arena Stage: Inherit The Wind

 "Inherit The Wind" by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee is the brilliant "parable-ization" of the real life Scopes Trial that both captivated and changed our country.  At it's heart is the story of modernity and the enlightenment finally arriving on the doorstep of superstition and fundamentalist religious zealotry.  It's a little like the old time radio broadcast "Dragnet" with it's opening disclaimer: "The story you are about to hear is true.  Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent."  So Scopes becomes Cates, William Jennings Bryan becomes Matthew Harrison Brady, Clarence Darrow is now Colonel Henry Drummond, and the Journalist from Baltimore who electrified the entire circus with his dispatches H. L. Mencken becomes E. L. Hornbeck.  With all the alliteration, the transformations are a thinly veiled disguise.  Even the outcome was the same.  Cates, the earnest high school science teacher was found guilty and ordered to pay a fine of $100.00.  

The writing is crisp and full of humor to guide us u
p to and through the serious issues being presented.  No character is left dangling in the purgatory of caricature.  The cast includes 22 members, but for this production, 15 have been squeezed down into the hands of 4 ensemble members.  Sifts come with swift costume changes and at times men play women and women play men.  The set is likewise as nimble with a set of four railings, a series of wooden palates and crates, and a handful of folding chairs easily transported by the cast from configuration to configuration as needed.  As the play is tight and efficient, so was the staging.

Alex de Bard

The cast is a lovely mix of outside talent and local A-listers.  The defender of religious dogma is played with tremendous charm and gravity by Dakin Matthews whose resume on stage and in film and TV is long and respectable.  He takes on the pivotal scene where in his pride he allows himself to be interrogated by his upstart opponent under oath and is utterly undone by the contradictions of his faith and the modern world.  Holding the torch of reason is another veteran actor of the Broadway stage, Billy Eugene Jones.  It was hard not to compare his performance to that of Denzel Washington in the movie "Philadelphia".  Like Matthews, he brought a gravitas to the role that was equal and thus plausible.  But more than that, he made it palpable.  Of the locals in the ensemble, Holly Twyford and Todd Scofield once again proved their A-List bona fide with exceptional performances that saw them flipping on a dime from one character to the next.  The great surprise of this performance was Alex de Bard who stepped in at the last moment to play Rachel, the daughter of the local Reverend leading the charge against Cates, and Cates secret love.  I don't know what the actress cast in the role was like, but Alex was seamlessly amazing!  The very perfection of an understudy.

I've spoken before about the depth and breadth of Theatre in the DMV.  Toss in Baltimore--just 30 minutes up the pike, and there are well into 40 professional and semi-professional theatre companies with active seasons.  This embarrassment of riches didn't just happen over night.  It is the result of multiple dreams by countless creatives who love live theatre.  Arena Stage was established in 1950.  It planted itself in a forgotten corner of DC where the rent was cheap.  From that moment on, nothing was easy, but the visionaries who founded it just wouldn't say "no".   In 1973, Arena Stage first mounted a full scale production of "Inherent The Wind."  After playing out their DC run, they were invited to take the show to Moscow!  It was the first American Theatre Company to perform in the Soviet Union.  68 Actors and technicians traveled to Russia and performed to standing ovations.  Among the actors was Dianne Weist (one of my personal favorites).  In reflecting on this, the company's founding director, Zelda Fichlander (for whom the theater space where today's performance was presented is named) explained that it was chosen as a way to showing the tension between America's aspirations and its reality.  That tensions like this create the catalyst for positive change, even as they exact a price on the status quo.

Don't we need to be reminded of this now, as much as ever before.

Billy Eugene Jones as "Colonel" Henry Drummond

Dakin Matthews as Matthew Harrison Brady

Noah Plomgren as the science teacher, Bertram Cates

At the moment of his downfall...