Inherit the Wind is a breakthrough performance highlighting the profound relationship between church and state in the U.S. court system. The play premiered on Nov. 13 in Bonn Studio Theater and was directed by Max Rodriguez, MCAS ’26.
The play is inspired by the famous 1925 Scopes Trial, commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial. In the trial, American high school teacher John T. Scopes was accused of teaching his students the theory of evolution and Darwinism, which conflicted with Biblical accounts of the origins of the human race.
Although Inherit the Wind was originally written in 1955, Rodriguez emphasized his vision of this court case being a timeless artifact.
“Visually, you’ll see what the design team, I, and the cast have sort of tried to do is really neutralize the time period,” Rodriguez said. “So that when you’re watching the play, it doesn’t feel like it’s 1925 and it doesn’t necessarily feel like it’s 2024, it could be any time, really, in American history.”
At the top of the show, set designers Echo Panana, MCAS ’26, and Shannon Chu, MCAS ’27, immediately pulled audiences in with their work. Through the setting of a classic wooden courtroom with the bold words “In God We Trust” glowing in the dark, the set design further foreshadowed strong traces of Christian beliefs seeping into the practice of the law.
“Our dramaturg, Ava Maloco, is incredible,” Rodriguez said. “Our whole stage management team, led by Ella Neary, are exquisite, and the designers are just magnificent—they are just sensational.”
In the play, the audience is introduced to characters such as Bertram “Bert” Cates (Jackson Rowley, MCAS ’27), the spooked professor who finds himself prosecuted for his teachings, as well as his secret lover and co-worker Rachel Brown (Cecilia Lee, LSEHD ’26) who plays a pivotal role in challenging the majority opinion of the town folks’ Christian beliefs, even standing up to her outspoken Reverend father.
The courtroom features the renowned prosecutor Matthew Brady, played by Casey Corcoran, MCAS ’26, as well as his counterpart attorney Tom Davenport played by Conor Flaherty, MCAS ’28. The two men consider themselves not only interpreters of the law but of the word of God as well.
On the defense is the very passionate Helen Drummond (Mary Zimmerman, MCAS ’25), who seems to be one of the only voices against religion and calls out the hypocrisy of a society that allows Christianity to block efforts of natural thinking and learning among the youth.
And who could forget the bold yet observant E.K. Hornbeck (Cecilia Hood, MCAS ’27), whose words and opinions encapsulate a true journalistic figure during the trial?
Rodriguez continued by highlighting the parallels between this play and what is currently going on in the U.S. political system.
“The cast is also just a dream team of people,” Rodriguez said. “It’s been a very sort of unmooring time, a very emotional time for many wading through the issues that are in this play, while those issues are cropping up even more, sort of glaringly around the election.”
Inherit the Wind challenges what role religious beliefs should have within government, through eruptions of passionate remarks from all sides, the questioning of what is good vs. what is evil, the battle between free thought and comfort, and the argumentation from Drummond’s defense that leaves audiences on the very edge of their seat.
“In many ways, the play is like an allegory, meaning it speaks to issues we were asking in the United States of America in 1925 when this trial actually happened, we were asking them in 1955 when this play was written, and we’re asking them now in 2024,” Rodriguez said.
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