The arena stage’s deep, circular Fichandler Auditorium looks like a Colosseum, perfect for dramatic courtroom duels based on painstaking and serious arguments.
On the other hand, the beautiful bucket has a large space that reaches 680 seats in all directions, length and width. Left unchecked, Fichandler can easily swallow up the performers, the work, and even the sounds they make. That sounds more like Ryan Guzzo Purcell’s new rendition of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s timeless drama. Inherit the wind.
Purcell, the founding artistic director of the Seattle-based theater ensemble The Feast, attacks every corner of the cavernous space, from everywhere at once. An entire floor of Fichandler is devoted to the podunk town of Hillsboro, the setting for our story, depicted by set designer Tanya Orellana as a vast, dusty desert prairie.
Ensemble members rush in with wooden railings and chairs as needed, adding accents reminiscent of a county jail or courthouse. Trouble comes into town in the form of schoolteacher Bart Cates (Noah Plomgren), who teaches Darwin’s theory to second-grade science students. On the origin of species through natural selectionHuman Evolution.
For his heresy, which technically violates Hillsborough law, Cates stands trial in a case that threatens to tear the town apart, but is based on the real-life 1925 Scopes Monkey trial.
The rival legal luminaries William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, who argued for this landmark case, are interpreted in the play as three-time Bible-promoting presidential candidate Matthew Harrison Brady and famous Molotov lawyer Henry Drummond. Played by theater veterans Dakin Matthews and Billy Eugene Jones, respectively, Brady and Drummond emerge as the two most central forces in what can often feel like a disjointed film.
With the action spread out around each corner, and members of the game’s ensemble like Holly Twyford and Todd Schofield popping in and out as different characters, the energy on stage can feel too spread out. Conversation and text drift into space.
This atmosphere is only further dispelled by the antics of EK Hornbeck (Alyssa Keegan), a newspaper reporter who is a selfish observer of events in Hillsborough. This person was sent by the director to roam loudly among the theater audience.
But the events, texts, and issues are all brought into sharp focus through Matthews’ confident Brady, a court gladiator who relies on faith and moral righteousness. Similarly, Jones’ swaggering Drummond is a strong defender not only of his client Cates and his scientific arguments, but also of the principles of free thought, especially in a country where unorthodox free speech is punishable by law.
Brady v. Drummond has proven to be a highlight of the show, with the elder statesman claiming to defend the “living truth of the Bible” against “desecration of science.” That debate is forever raging wherever the wind blows in this country, from the hills of this very neighborhood to the sun-baked prairie of Hillsborough.
Inherit the wind (★★★☆☆) runs through April 5 at Arena Stage, 1101 6th St. SW. Tickets range from $73 to $118, with discount options available. Call 202-488-3300 or visit: arenastage.org.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
