"Inherit the Wind" Breezes into Oak Park

Director Steve Pickering furrows his brow, leans in close to talk. His gaze grows more intense as he expounds on the source material and setting for Inherit the Wind, the first of two summer productions.

"This is a play with a lot of rust on it," he said. "But it's about the freedom of individual thought and that excited me."

Pickering is at the helm of the play, which fictionally recreates the Scopes "monkey" trial of 1925, where two famed attorneys collided in a Dayton, Tenn. courtroom over the legality of high school teacher John Scopes teaching evolution in a public school.

Playing the role of attorney Matthew Harrison Brady is Aaron Christensen, a Chicago actor who's credits include roles at Chicago's Shakespeare Theater, Goodman Theater and Steppenwolf Theater. The role of Brady is based on William Jennings Bryan, "one of the best known orators and lecturers of the era," who prosecuted the case.

Jack Hickey, OPFT's artistic director, plays defense attorney Henry Drummond, based on prominent civil libertarian and ACLU leader Clarence Darrow. Supporting is Kimberly Logan, playing the role of bombastic big city journalist E.K. Hornbeck, modeled after H.L. Mencken.

The original play, authored by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, premiered in 1955 during the height of McCarthyism, with all of its suspicions about so-called Un-American activities. Like McCarthy's crusade, the Scopes trial explored the boundaries of intellectual freedom.

"We used the teaching of evolution as a parable, a metaphor for any kind of mind control," Lawrence once told Newsday. "It's not about science versus religion. It's about the right to think." (Via the Topeka Capital Journal)

The weighty, back-and-forth drama should make for some memorable interplay between the veteran actors.

"As a vehicle for an actor, [the play] is terrific. It's easy to scream and yell at each other. That gets old for the actors and for the audience," Christensen said. "The trick is finding all of these colors [in the dialogoue]."

Pickering said his version is light on the aw-shucks stereotyping of small town America — "Only one time is someone allowed to snap their suspenders" — and the set is more "impressionistic rural" than literal.

"I don't care where this takes place. It takes place in America. This is Rural, Anywhere," he said. "McCarthyism wasn't regional."

Pickering, a history buff, said the production is inspired by "Living Newspaper" plays, part of the New Deal's Federal Theatre Project which brought live performances to towns across Great Depression-era America.

There will be thunderous and eloquent delivery from the stage, actors planted in the audience and chances for participation.

"It's a 1955 look at McCarthyism but about a 1925 trial, seen through a 1935 filter," Pickering said.

Inherit the Wind performances take place June 16 through July 16. Previews are scheduled for June 14-15. Opening Night Saturday, June 16 at 8 p.m.; Thursday through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m; also Wednesday July 11 at 8 p.m. Outdoors in Austin Gardens; Tickets for previews are $15; For the rest of run: $25 adults, $20 students & seniors; Tickets can be purchased here.