Even if the same Bible Belt locales were not, even now, still trying to combat the teaching of evolution, the play would seem depressingly contemporary.Įrhard Rom's settings and Pamela Scofield's costumes for the street scenes and courtroom scenes suggest the mid-Twenties period while making us recognize these unsophisticated rural people as timeless and familiar. Rather, it is a play about 'telling the truth,' about the right to 'think for oneself,' about the attempt of a community to stop a man from teaching science if they think it conflicts with the local church's teachings, and about a national leader who has 'lost his way, looking for God' as his own personal guide. The playwrights wanted to use actual events to create a richly suggestive drama, so although Inherit the Wind reflects the infamous Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, July 1925, and makes no effort to hide the fact that Matthew Harrison Brady (the famed orator representing the prosecution) is based on William Jennings Bryan, and Henry Drummond (the agnostic defense lawyer) represents Clarence Darrow, it is not an accurate account of the trial against Scopes for teaching evolution nor is it an exact picture of any of the real, historical people involved. And, despite being slightly more than half a century old and based on a notorious historic trial that took place more than 80 years ago, the play is, sadly, all too timely. Lee's rousing courtroom drama, Inherit the Wind, plays like gangbusters, bringing its opening- night crowd to their feet. It's no surprise that Geva Theater's elaborate revival of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E.

Inherit the wind robert e lee