Erie Playhouse Delivers Message of Hope With Inherit The Wind

Rick Klein Photography

As relevant today as it was when it was written in 1955, Inherit the Wind, currently on stage at the Erie Playhouse, tackles issues of political division, religious dogma, and standing up for one's own convictions.

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"Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward, BACKWARD." These lines, spoken by Henry Drummond, a fictitious defense attorney in a climactic courtroom scene, could be equally fitting if set in modern times.

Inherit The Wind, the 1955 play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee is fictional but based on the very real Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925.

"We chose this play because of its message that we hope resonates with audience members who have any grasp of the current political climate and feel the danger of being swept up by what the crowd thinks and religious conviction," says director Carolin Lynn. "Our artistic director Richard Davis scouts potential shows for an upcoming season and we discuss their merits as a whole staff," Lynn continues.

Lynn is an Erie Playhouse veteran of 29 years, "...since Charlie Corritore recruited me from the box office at the Academy Theatre in Meadville", she says. When asked how she would describe this play (without spoilers) to someone who had never seen or read it, Lynn explained, "It's a play about the Scopes trial, written in the '50s as a response to the McCarthy Era, that still needs to be seen and heard today. It's about allowing yourself and others to come to conclusions about hard questions through thinking and questioning, rather than accepting that something is right or wrong just because the law or dogma says it is. And it's about being brave enough to stand up for convictions, even when everyone else says you're in the wrong."

The Erie Playhouse production stars familiar faces Mike DeCorte as Matthew Harrison Brady, Victor Kuehn as Henry Drummond, and Zach Flock as E. K. Hornbeck as well as a large cast of Playhouse regulars and newcomers. Lynn wants theater goers to know "Inherit The Wind is not a dry documentary… it has been written to be entertaining … audience members who might think they have no interest in history or politics should still enjoy the story."

Fridays and Saturdays through Apr. 20 at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Apr. 18 at 7:30 p.m., Sundays, Apr. 14 and 21 at 2:00 p.m. // Erie Playhouse, 13 W. 10th St. // $18.49 - $29.40 // For tickets and info: erieplayhouse.org