Howard, a young man in overalls, bent over, plucked a fake worm from manicured AstroTurf, and wiggled it in Melinda’s face. She shrieked, repulsed.
“What’re you scared of? You was a worm once,” Howard said.
“That’s sinful talk!” she exclaimed.
The two shared a few more words before Melinda flounced off, and Howard wandered in the other direction, asking the worm what it wanted to be when it grew up.
The exchange, between two characters in the opening scene of “Inherit the Wind,” the Flathead Valley Community College Theatre’s first show of the 2016–2017 season, is a microcosm of the ideological debate to unfold in the following 90 minutes: Creation or evolution? That’s the question the small town of Hillsboro, which one character calls the “buckle on the Bible belt,” must answer after schoolteacher Bertram Cates is thrown in jail for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, a violation of state law.
His lawyer, Henry Drummond, comes from Chicago to defend Cates against Matthew Harrison Brady, a high-powered advocate of the holy book who captures the town’s favor immediately. At first, Drummond endeavors to explain evolution to Hillsboro residents in hopes that the science will change their hearts, but he can’t penetrate their closed minds.
“The Bible satisfies me; it is enough,” one character on the witness stand tells Drummond, played by Justin Allred in the FVCC production.
“It frightens me to imagine the state of learning in this world if everyone had your driving curiosity,” Drummond responds sarcastically.
“An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral,” he continues, finding a powerful pivot in his defense.
More important than convincing Hillsboro’s citizens of the truth of Darwin’s words, he realizes, is helping them understand their “power to think” (with which “God plague[d] us”).
“You see, I haven’t really thought very much. I was always afraid of what I might think — so it seemed safer not to think at all,” one character eventually admits to Drummond.
Ultimately, the play vindicates neither evolution nor creation, although, of course, one side of the case does win. Rather, “Inherit the Wind” champions, as Drummond says, “the right to be wrong.”
“We know on the surface, it’s about the concept of creation versus evolution, but that’s not what it’s really about,” FVCC Theatre Arts professor Joe Legate said. “Maybe some people will be upset (by the premise), but by the end, they will discover that it’s about how all of us have the freedom of thought. It seems like a judgment is being made, but what people should take away is that freedom is invaluable to all of us. All of us.”
While the play, which first debuted in 1955 and was in 1960 produced as a film, was inspired by the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” trial, it was also originally a vehicle to discuss the McCarthy trials of the 1950s. And though those trials are no longer contemporary, the play’s primary themes of freedom of speech and what is right versus what is true endure, offering something new to viewers in 2016.
“For me, growing up in the 60s and 70s, that appealed to me because the crisis was relevant,” Legate said. “(The play’s debate is) still relevant, with the protests with Black Lives Matter and what’s going down in politics. I mean, how obvious is that?”
The FVCC production will further bridge historical eras by incorporating theatrical elements like costumes from the 1920s and 1950s.
Beyond the various layers of philosophical discourse, “Inherit the Wind” is also a “dynamite story,” Legate says. “It’s clever and approachable on an artistic level, on an intelligent level.”
And among the characters, there’s great depth of personality. They’re much more than figureheads propping up either side of the debate.
“The political or science angle is only one of many dramas,” Allred said. “There’s several interpersonal dramas, which lends depths to characters that otherwise could be pedantic.”
The play, which has performances at 7 p.m. from Oct. 6–8, is the first of the college’s theatre season. Up next is “A Christmas Carol,” followed by “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” and “Bye, Bye Birdie.”
“It’s a nice, balanced season. We do something a little bit edgy to start, with ‘Inherit the Wind,’ and so is ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,’ but also fun, family fare,” Legate said. “As an educator, (‘Inherit the Wind’) is a wonderful opportunity to populate the stage … and it’s an American classic, pure Americana. What better reason (to show it)? It’s a great way to kick off the season.”