Nick's Place

Inherit the Wind

Nicholas Barnard 2/19/2001

The decision of Wright State University to schedule Inherit the Wind to be produced this month resulted in a great coincidence with the inauguration of George W. Bush less than a month before opening of this play, which for me brings a greater personal importance to this play. The writers, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, and director Shelia Ramsey have created a timeless piece of theatre. This production could have taken place in the 1920s, 1950s, or today.

At first Inherit the Wind seems to be a run of the mill play, but at its core is the individual human struggle to be able to think freely. Lawrence and Lee have captured this event in a clear logical climatic structure. The characters are often charactures, which serves the play well. We're not privy in the individual back-stories of many of the characters. Reverend Brown could be any evangelical minister. Rachel Brown and Bertram Cates a loving couple divided by one question. Drummond, Brady, and Hornbeck are respectfully the profanity filled agnostic, the worn out presidential candidate, and the cynical reporter. At first sight these broad character sketches would leave for boring theatre, but they create the timelessness of this play, we can associate these characters with many people over different time periods.

The ensemble cast lead by Ian Rhodes and W.C. Robinson bring these charactures to life with vibrant performances. Overall there was lots of excellent reactionary acting, every person onstage is appropriately in the moment. The unusual stand out is Brandon Michael Perkins, playing Reverend Brown; at several times during rehearsals and performances his interpretation and great bellowing voice have caused me both anger and Goosebumps. Ryan Cutlip's Hornbeck is played with just the right balance of cynicism and compassion reinforced by Cutlip's varied volume and style. Brian Woodward delivers a solid albeit unremarkable performance as Bertram Cates. He is backed by Natasha Randall's at times gut wrenching Rachel Brown. Usually with an ensemble production with as many excellent performances they distract from each other, creating a muddled powerhouse mess, but the cast along with Ramsey handle balancing these over the top characters.

Sheila Ramsey's direction has wonderfully united these diverse elements, and has added some wonderful southern music. She balances the pacing, which moves along at a reasonable pace, never speeding but just meandering, like a small southern town. Her staging makes appropriate use of Michael Nolte's set and brilliantly uses Brent Winderlich's lighting design.

The technical elements of this production are in many ways unremarkable; they are solid for a small town piece. The lighting design shines the most, creating the illusion of timelessness by utilizing the same pre- and post-show lighting. It also makes wonderful shadows for all of the audience to enjoy.

Overall Wright State's production of Inherit the Wind is an excellent solid theatre piece. I have struggled to find a fault or place for improvement, but none comes to mind after ten viewings of this production. I say bravo to the cast, designers, and director. I exclude the crew from congratulations because of my biased opinion on the properties run crew, but I believe we have held our own up against the excellent work in the other areas.