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This legal drama turns Clarence Brown into a public courthouse
Under intense summer heat, the eternal battle of traditionalism and progress sweats itself out before the townspeople of Dayton and, thanks to intense media coverage, the country as a whole. Or rather, this is the battle that audiences at the Clarence Brown Theatre recently watched unfold from their air-conditioned seats a century after the events in question occurred. There was a winner and loser of the trial, but the winning ideology is a more complicated conversation.
This year, Tennessee celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial, which took place in the town of Dayton. The trial prosecuted teacher John Scopes for teaching evolution to his high school class in violation of the Butler Act, and found him guilty, although he was later acquitted by the Supreme Court.
As part of campus-wide events to commemorate the centennial of the trial, the Clarence Brown Theatre produced “Inherit the Wind.” This court drama, based on the Scopes Monkey Trial, ran from Feb. 12 through March 2. Katie Lupica, who serves as the Associate Artistic Director of the Clarence Brown, directed the play. She provided some insight into the production and rehearsal process.
“I found out I would be directing it early spring, probably around this time last year,” said Lupica.
Before the performance begins, the audience is greeted with an imposing wooden set resembling a courthouse. This piece dominates the stage, and is large enough to span its entire width. It is under this structure that the entire action of the play occurs.
“I think it managed to be epic, but open,” said Lupica, regarding the courthouse structure.
As the play progresses, a fierce legal battle between Henry Drummond, played by Jed Diamond, and Matthew Harrison Brady, played by Terry Weber, develops. Drummond’s defense of Bert Cates, the schoolteacher played by Clay Cooper, against Brady’s prosecution and staunch anti-evolutionism can be misconstrued as a story of science prevailing over those who resist progress. However, Lupica and her cast had a different vision for the production.
“If it’s just going to be a victory lap for the enlightened, then what are we doing here?” Lupica said.
She knew that there must be more to this production than modern viewers looking down on the past and feeling intelligent.
“We consume so much media in our society that affirms our beliefs and assumptions about the world, and so I’m always looking for a way to sort of gently shake that up for the possibility of a new idea,” Lupica said.
Instead, this play showcases a dialogue between two ideologies. Drummond seeks to demonstrate to Brady and the townspeople of Dayton that the Bible is not irreconcilable with Darwinism. A major theme is that no matter what a person believes, they should have the right to decide for themselves what they consider to be true. More important to Drummond, and to Lupica, is an acceptance of uncertainty.
“I was interested in the play recommending uncertainty, in embracing that the human ways of knowing, as many as there are, are still really limited,” Lupica said.
As a reminder of this human limitation, nature is everywhere in the set. From subtle plant details, to a wooden cut out in the silhouette of a mountain line on the back of the stage, to a constant projection of clouds and a changing sky behind the actors, nature is intentionally brought into the view of the audience.
“It was really important to us that nature be on stage, in terms of a way of knowing that is beyond human,” said Lupica.
“Inherit the Wind” does not reject Darwinism, nor does it scoff at religious belief. Instead, this play urges comfort in uncertainty, and the knowledge that humanity does not, and never will, know everything.
In the meantime, the play leaves us with a plea for coexistence. To end the show, Drummond stands alone onstage, with a Bible in one hand and Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” in the other. Feeling the weight of each in his hand, he considers them and smiles before clapping the texts together as the lights go out and a wind blows. This breeze blows the audience back out into the world, with a desire not only to understand our origins but to have understanding for each other in our present time.
