INHERIT THE WIND To 20 December.
London.
INHERIT THE WIND
by Jerome Lawrence & Robert E Lee.
Old Vic The Cut SE1 8NB To 20 December 2009.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 5pm except 29 Nov 3pm Mat Sat & 28 Oct2.30pm.
Audio-described 12 Nov.
Captioned 5 Nov.
Runs 2hr 35min One interval.
TICKETS: 0844 871 7628 (£2.50 transaction fee).
www.oldvictheatre.com (no booking fee).
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 October.
Cast, central performances and emotions all big-time for the Darwin debate trial.
Nowadays, this might have become a verbatim edit of the 1925 ‘monkey’ trial using the names of defendant John Scopes, who defied Tennessee law by teaching Evolution, prosecutor William Jennings Bryan and defence Clarence Darrow.
But in 1955 Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee stuck to character aliases while keeping close to what happened – Darrow actually called Bryan to the stand, as defence lawyer Henry Drummond does prosecutor Matthew Harrison Brady.
The authors mention briefly that the judge’s sentence was Politically-motivated, but not that the defence wanted a Guilty verdict to appeal against, while they invent the grandstanding Bryan’s collapse in the face of progress – a radio microphone.
Trevor Nunn’s big-scale production captures small-town American life, contrasting the hero’s welcome given Brady and Drummond’s arrival alone, lugging his suitcases.
If the first act shows the townsfolk turning the trial into a fair, the lawyers ensure it becomes a display by contrasting showmen. David Troughton’s hearty Brady punches points home, while Kevin Spacey’s Drummond, hunched at the shoulders, is a heavyweight gadfly, employing a Jack Benny-like technique, making a comment then staring silently as its significance sinks in.
Drummond’s more likely to find sympathy among urban audiences, then or now, than the locals. So it’s a pity the scale of the piece hides the jury on the front-row stalls, with other townsfolk towards the back of the stage, half-concealing the local impact of the arguments.
Amid this Sam Phillips is aptly passive as the defendant, Sonya Cassidy’s young Rachel torn in giving testimony against a man she likes, under the wing of her hellfire preacher father (a smoothly forceful Ken Bones). In the opposite corner Mark Dexter’s journalist, a shoe-in for H L Mencken, has an acidulous wit eventually denounced by Drummond. For, deadly enemies on this matter of freedom of thought, the lawyers had considerable admiration for each other.
This gives the play a warmth that almost slips into sentimentality as Drummond finally walks off with Bible and Darwin clasped together. That it doesn’t is thanks to Spacey’s performance, a mix of lightness and intensity that’s the evening’s lasting impression.
Phil/Reuter’s Man: Paris Arrowsmith.
Mayor: Paul Birchard.
Rev Jeremiah Brown: Ken Bones.
Dunlap: Adam Booth.
Hot Dog Man/Photographer/Radio Man: David Burrows.
Rachel Brown: Sonya Cassidy.
Meeker: Ian Conningham.
Elijah: Sam Cox.
E K Hornbeck: Mark Dexter.
Mrs Loomis: Mary Doherty.
Sillers: Branwell Donaghey.
Mrs Krebs: Janine Duvitski.
Mrs Blair: Sarah Ingram.
Judge: Nicholas Jones.
Mr Bannister: Sidney Livingstone.
Bertram Cates: Sam Phillips.
Cooper/Newspaperman: Simon Lee Phillips.
Mr Goodfellow: Vincenr Pirillo.
Tom Davenport: Christopher Ragland.
Henry Drummond: Kevin Spacey.
Mrs Brady: Susan Tracy.
Matthew Harrison Brady: David Troughton.
Mrs McLain: Janet Whiteside.
Howard: Branagh Crealock-Ashurst/Shea Davis/Richard Linnell.
Melinda: Katie Buchholz/Imogen Byron/Elizabeth Carter.
Townsfolk: Felix Andrew, Blake Askew, Tim Barton, Donita Beeman, Anthony James Berowne, Pat Boothman, Sam Child, Lorayne Constance, Katie Evans, Emma Fenney, Rhona Foulis, David Frias-Robles, Elizabeth George, Julian Gibbs, Sarah Giblin, David Grenfell, Terry Hillman, Terry Jermyn, Dean Michael Julian, Rosalie Jorda, Patrick Lannigan, Patrick Lee, Paul Lehmann, Yvonne Levy, Robert Macpherson, John Mawson, Jon McKenna, Stephen Moriaty, Owen Nolan, Neil Sheppeck, Max Saunders-Singer, Charlie Smith, Riley Stewart, Marco Violino.
Director: Trevor Nunn.
Designer: Rob Howell.
Lighting: Howard Harrison.
Sound: Fergus O’Hare.
Music Supervisor: Steven Edis.
Costume: Rob Howell, Irene Bohan.
Monkey training: Amazing Animals.
2009-10-08 09:28:18