REHEARSALS WELL UNDER WAY AND TICKETS ON SALE FOR SHREWSBURY’S DARWIN FESTIVAL CENTREPIECE
Rehearsals are well under way and tickets on sale for the showpiece event at next year’s Darwin Festival in Shrewsbury.
Directed by Sonia Knight and part funded through the Arts Council England, the Shropshire County Drama Group (SCDG) will perform Inherit the Wind, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee, at St Chad’s church next February 23 to 26.
Set in a Dayton courtroom in the intense heat of a Tennessee summer Inherit the Wind is a dramatisation of the infamous Tennessee v John Thomas Scopes ‘Monkey Trial” of 1925. A powerful and ultimately uplifting story it is often seen as a face-off between Darwinism and Creationists but is not about the theory of evolution versus the literal interpretation of the bible. The real theme explores freedom of thought and man’s natural thirst for knowledge.
First presented at the Dallas Theatre in 1955, followed by a tour of Canada and the USA Inherit the Wind which has been translated and produced in thirty four languages, was made into a film in 1960, with Spencer Tracey and Gene Kelly and revived on New York’s Broadway in 1996 starring George Scott, who also returned for the most recent television movie alongside Jack Lemmon in 1999.
Sonia Knight, commenting on the progress of rehearsals, said: “We have a very talented group of people for this production, who are highly committed to the project. Everything is well on schedule and I’m looking forward to the next series of rehearsals and planning prior to Christmas to fine tune the performance and presentation in what will be a unique production next February.”
Tickets, priced at £10 and £8 (concessions) for Inherit the Wind, are on sale through the box office at the Music Hall, Shrewsbury on +44 (0)1743 281281 or online at www.musichall.co.uk
Picture: Inherit The Wind Poster design