When it comes to Chicago theater, this feels like the year of Harry Lennix. After stellar turns as August Wilson in the playwright’s autobiographical How I Learned What I Learned at Broadway Playhouse and a Civil Rights icon patterned after the Rev. Jesse Jackson in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose at Steppenwolf, Lennix delivers a wry, commanding performance as Henry Drummond in the Goodman’s rock-solid production of Inherit the Wind.
Drummond, of course, was inspired by Clarence Darrow, just as the play itself is a gloss on the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 in which Darrow defended the science of evolution against religious creationists during the first trial ever broadcast live on the radio–Chicago’s Very Own WGN-AM, naturally.
It’s a sad commentary on a current societal moment rife with book bans and educational censorship that Inherit the Wind, ably directed here by Henry Godinez, feels so very relevant nearly a century after the trial that inspired it. But that’s where we’re at. And unlike the shrill social media warriors on all sides of every hot-button issue these days, Drummond delivers a beautifully reasoned defense not only of Darwin’s theories but of people’s inalienable right to think for themselves. Lennix is the perfect vessel to deliver this cool, calm masterclass in rationality peppered with moments of outrage and sly humor. He is, quite simply, a joy to watch.
It’s much to Alexander Gemignani’s credit that his character, fading national political force Matthew Harrison Brady, more than holds his own against his old ex-friend Drummond in court until he is finally undone by an attorney who knows exactly which buttons to push. Far from a straw man religious blowhard, Gemignani gives us a Brady with multiple layers, which makes his ultimate defeat that much more satisfying if bittersweet.
The people caught in the middle of this epic battle–Bertram Cates (Christopher Llewyn Ramirez), an idealistic young teacher who dared read a science book chapter on evolution to his students, and preacher’s daughter Rachel Brown (Tyler Meredith), a fellow teacher who loves Bertram but wants him to drop the battle–heighten the emotional stakes. That’s especially true of Rachel, who’s publicly excoriated by her father and manipulated into giving harmful testimony about Bertram.
But it’s the kids in the cast, led by Thomas Murphy Molony as Cates’ student Howard, who bring home why the battle against censorious God squadders is as critical as it was in 1925: These curious young people are hungry to take in the bounty of knowledge in science and many other subjects, if only they are allowed and encouraged to do so.
Inherit the Wind runs through October 20 at Goodman Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Liz Lauren
