He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind...

[brooklynite]

Last night I went to the Broadway revival of Inherit the Wind, the play about the 1925 "Scopes Trial" on the teaching of evolution. A riveting drama, made better by the performances of Chistopher Plummer (the Clarence Darrow character) and Brian Dennehy (the William Jennings Bryan character). It occured to me afterwards how troubling the actual history of this story was: that in the 20th Century, in a time of "telephones and automobiles and airplanes" (to paraphrase a portion of the play), legislative bodies were imposing new laws banning the teaching of subjects inconsistent with the literal word of the Bible. It also occured to me that, 80 years after the trial and 50 years after the play was first written, we seem to have made so little progress in seperating science and theology.

[saltpoint]

1. A tremendous play. Good for you to have gone and enjoyed it.

I wish it weren't still relevant, too. But it is a terrific teaching play for high schools.

[blogslut]

2. Nice cast

I bet it was very enjoyable. Ironically, I have a copy of the film version with Spencer Tracy, Frederic March and Gene Kelly, sitting in my DVD player. (All hail teh Netflix!) I'm trying to get my college kid to watch it. The language still sparkles after all these years. I would say it's a play with a message for the ages.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. I saw the National Theater production in 1999 (I think) with Tony Randal

and Charles Durning. Stellar performance. BTW, Scopes didn't break the law because of his outrage at the TN statute. He did it b/c the Chamber of Commerce of Dayton needed a gimmick to get tourism into their town for dollars. This is documented. They asked him to break the law to get a show trial in their town.

[rsdsharp]

5. You're exactly right.

What's more, the regular science teacher didn't want anything to do with it. Scopes was the football coach and a substitute teacher who was willing to step in and be the scape goat.

[lpbk2713]

4. The rethuglicans and the fundies have made giant leaps backward.

The conservative movement may be dying off but I'm afraid ignorance will always be with us.



And BTW Inherit the Wind is one of my favorite alltime films. Well done, excellent cast.