Rather than attending my normal music endeavours this week, I decided to change things up and attend a play put on by McGill’s very own players theater. For the latter two weeks of November, the Players Theater will be performing an adaptation of Robert E. Lee’s Inherit the Wind. The play, which is an American classic of drama, is based upon the famous Scopes Monkey trial, which debates the teaching of Evolution in a small, Southern town in the early 20th century.
In a brief summary, schoolteacher Bertram Cates is jailed and put on trial for teaching Darwin’s theory of Evolution to his high school class. To persecute Cates, the town brings in famous political figure Mary Harrison Brady, a woman sworn to stand by the teachings of the Bible. To defend Cates, the infamous, agnostic lawyer Henry Drummond is brought in from the metropolis of Chicago. With these two opposing forces fighting towards their beliefs of religion, freedom of speech, and given rights as humans, an intense and insightful argument ensues.
Before seeing the Player’s Theater version of the play, I had already been familiar with the text; I was required to read it in high school. Falling in love with it then, I also watched the film adaptation featuring famous actor Spencer Tracy. So, going into the Players Theater on Wednesday I held very high expectations. Needless to say, my expectations were exceeded. The Player’s Theater put on an incredibly intimate, hilarious, and moving performance, giving the original play the justice it deserved. With such a simple set, the actors had to give larger than life performances as the townspeople of Hillsborough torn over the issue of Evolution and Creationism. Parts of the play were humorous, parts were intriguing, and some parts were so intense and moving that the audience was left silent in thought.
It was truly a delight to see a play put on by my peers. The Player’s Theater left me very impressed and I cannot wait to see the other plays that will be performed in the new year.