Noah Plomgren as Bertram Cates and Billy Eugene Jones as Henry Drummond in “Inherit the Wind.” Photo by Daniel Rader.
You need a pretty good reason to mount a 75-year-old play about a century-old historical event. The new production of “Inherit the Wind” at Arena Stage makes its case for revival based on the struggle between the individual right to free thought versus the societal pressure to conform—familiar territory in our own divisive time. Execution is key to it’s success. The direction, acting, and design elements of this production effectively thrust the message of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s text into today’s turbulent, culture wars.
…visually inventive and passionately performed.
On first glance, Tanya Orellana’s set design is novel and challenges expectations. Reddish mounds resembling sand are interspersed with tufts of beach grass and five clusters of wooden pallets suggested pieces of boardwalk. But two tall towers topped with speakers struck a more sinister note—was this a market? Maybe a political rally? After all, the strings of colorful pennants at the back of the house evoked a circus. Such shifts in mood and tone permeated the play and the production ultimately proved visually inventive and passionately performed.
The play opens outside the courthouse and in front of the jail where Bertram Cates (Noah Plomgren), a teacher accused of breaking a local law, awaits trial. This is small-town southern America, during a blistering summer not too long ago. Cates, immediately sympathetic, has stumbled into controversy by teaching evolution to schoolchildren in a community where the Bible is the sole accepted source of truth. Even the love of his life, the preacher’s daughter Rachel Brown (warmly played by Rebecca Madeira), wishes he would just apologize and promise not to teach science again. But Cates longs to fully understand the miracle of life on earth in all its complexity, “Do you know, at the top of the world the twilight is six months long?” he asks Rachel with joy and wonder. Her response echoes all who wish to close their eyes to possibility, “But we don’t live at the top of the world, we live in Hillsboro, and when the sun goes down it’s dark.”
Enter Matthew Harrison Brady (a stirring Dakin Matthews), a famous prosecutor, three-time presidential candidate, and self-proclaimed scholar of the good book. His arrival is celebrated with an old-fashioned picnic lunch during which E.K. Hornbeck (Aylssa Keegan) also arrives. Hornbeck is a reporter from a Baltimore newspaper that is sending a defense lawyer for Cates, noted Chicago attorney Henry Drummond (Billy Eugene Jones). The next day, in court, we meet a variety of townsfolk and Drummond, Brady’s long-time archrival. Jones is strong, kind, smart, and funny in the challenging role.
The relationship triangle of Brady, Drummond, and Hornbeck, is tricky to manage. The script presents two antagonists to Brady. Drummond, an equally accomplished trial lawyer who is motivated by different beliefs, and Hornbeck the erudite cynic who is just as vain and self-promoting as Brady. Hornbeck denounces the trial and comments from the sidelines throughout. The production attempts to present Hornbeck as an omnipresent observer who disappears and reappears in various locations within the theater. This was often more intrusive than enhancing.
Among the unique features of this production is the small size of the cast. There were 10 actors for a script that has a roster of 30 named characters and an ensemble of 10. All the actors were highly accomplished and able to change characters with ease. Holly Twyford was especially effective in changing from Sheriff Meeker, the jailor and court bailiff, to the doting Mrs. Brady. The character changes, often rapid and visible, were very noticeable given the small size of the ensemble and sometimes proved distracting. Without a crowd of townspeople, the play’s central theme—the individual right to think versus the consensus of the group—was undermined.
The other key feature is the set changes, which occasion a flurry of activity, most always accompanied by live music in the vein of Allison Krause and Union Station. Most impressive of these set changes was the Fourth of July tent revival that caps Act 1. The scene, effectively staged by Director Ryan Guzzo Purcell, uses the entire cast to engage the audience. The energy builds to a stunning crescendo that concludes with the savior-like arrival of Henry Drummond. It was a moment that made this reviewer want to cry out for the return of a certain, previous president.
The Fichandler was used to good effect throughout, especially in moments when the audience became part of the play as in the courtroom scenes. Placing the witness box center stage allowed the actors to circle it in growing impatience or pique. Emotional responses to the lawyer’s arguments could occasionally be heard from the audience in this scene, though it never rose to a level that seemed to reach a mass engagement in the action that might have replaced the otherwise absent crowd.
Running Time: Two hours and 10 minutes including one 15-minute intermission.
Advisory: Contains theatrical haze and flashing lights.
“Inherit the Wind,” produced in association with The Feast (an artist-driven ensemble theatre based in Seattle), runs through April 5, 2026 in the Fichandler Stage at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2461. Performances are Sundays at 2 pm and 7:30 pm; Tuesdays at 7:30 pm; Wednesdays at 12 pm and 7:30 pm; Fridays at 8 pm; and Saturdays at 2 pm and 8 pm. For more information and two purchase tickets, call the Box Office at 202.488.3300, Tuesday-Sunday: 12 noon-6 pm, or go online.
