Rosie Forrest is the artistic associate of Northlight Theatre in Skokie, Illinois, and is currently serving as the dramaturg for the theatre’s revival of “Inherit the Wind.” Here she writes for The Scientist, Magazine of the Life Sciences:
The evolution of Inherit the Wind
The classic play has something to teach us about the intersection
between science and religion at three crucial points in American history.Inherit the Wind is a play that belongs to three decades. Its story was
inspired by the Scopes “Monkey” Trial of 1920s, it was a hit on Broadway
in 1950s, and it remains pertinent to the battle between evolution and
intelligent design that found its way to a Pennsylvania courthouse only
last year…
Make no mistake
I propose evaluating a young person’s reaction to this play –or the classic film with Spencer Tracy (and Gene Kelly?!) — as a single test of whether or not that student is intellectually curious and adequately educated. A thoughtful, complex response to it should substitute automatically for all other “measures” of education!
Which means my 11-year-old already would be deemed adequately literate, thoughtful and accomplished for general public citizen purposes . . .and my almost 17-year-old could be President!
[...] believe what Spencer Tracy tells the jury in Inherit the Wind (great play too, not just a classic movie): I respect and revere the power of the individual human [...]
[...] Favorite Daughter and I have read this play, seen and analyzed the film and the legit remake with Jack Lemmon several times, along with provocative academic commentary about it all, and most educationally valuable I think, the scholarly history of the real trial and its cultural contexts, Edward J. Larson’s “Summer for the Gods” (awarded the 1998 PULITZER PRIZE FOR HISTORY.) [...]