PEORIA, IL -- High praise goes to the cast of the reader's theater production of "Inherit the Wind" that played at the Peoria Riverfront Museum on Oct 15 and 16.
Strong acting and terrific dialogue made this play a standout. The actors were all local people whose performances seemed professional and their characters authentic.
The play is a fictional depiction of the famous Scopes 'monkey trial' on the teaching of evolution in Tennessee in the 1920s. The state tried to ban it. If that sounds like Florida today, well, so be it.
The play itself has been performed many times and made into films starring A-list actors. But seeing it done in person was very compelling.
It was accompanied by live period music and a 'chorus' of church ladies in the audience to heckle the action on stage.
The only false note was asking the audience to sing 'Give Me That Old Time Religion' at the end of the play, when the Clarence Darrow figure has effectively destroyed the literal bible beliefs of the William Jennings Bryan figure.
Too bad some new lyrics were not found for that tune.
-- Elaine Hopkins
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