Since Inherit the Wind first graced the Broadway stage in 1955, the play has been performed almost every night somewhere in the world. Its immense popularity as a play suggests that the issues playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee dramatized, hit a nerve across social, regional and religious lines. Lawrence and Lee's inspiration was the 1925 ‘Monkey Trial’, in which Tennessee schoolteacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in violation of state law. Scopes deliberately courted arrest to challenge what he and his supporters saw as an unjust law. For twelve days, Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes captured the nation's attention as a media circus swept through Dayton, carrying the historical event to a world of readers and listeners. The heightened debate over creationism versus evolution and the continual struggle of a nation for control, while looking for meaning in an increasingly complex world suggests a usefulness for this play far deeper than merely a characteristic look at America in the 1920s.
In one of Classic Revival’s largest productions yet, Inherit the Wind features 30 actors on stage, including Val O’Donnell, Frank Keane & Louis O’Byrne, as well as Dick Tobin, Jennifer Higgins, Noel Aungier, Peigi Daly, Declan Kidd, Frank Cowan, Ian McColgan, Paul McCrone, Neil McCrone, Fergus Cullen, Marie Gallagher, Mary Keane, May Kearney, Michael Fitzgerald, Siobhan O’Sullivan & others.
Classic Revival, founded by Pegeen Coleman, Director, and Yvonne Herterich, Production Manager, to present old films seldom seen on theatrical stage, are based in the Navan Road area and have members from all over the city. In the past you may have enjoyed their other productions in Draíocht, including 12 Angry Men, My 3 Angels, Steel Magnolias, 84 Charing Cross Road, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial and most recently Noises Off.
To interview Pegeen Coleman, Director of Classic Revival, please call: 087-9954312
For further information about this event, or to request images please contact:
Nicola Murphy, Marketing Press & PR Manager, Draíocht
Tel: 01-8098021 or email nicola@draiocht.ie
www.draiocht.ie |
