If you believe in the separation of Church (or synagogue) and state and accept Darwin’s view of our origins — as opposed to the Bible’s — there is no more heart-warming play than Jerome Lawrence’s and Robert E Lee’s 1955 courtroom drama based on the famous “Monkey Trial” of 1925, in which a Tennessee teacher was tried for teaching the theory of evolution.
It is no surprise that this play rarely gets a staging in Britain — Trevor Nunn’s expert production needs a cast of 29 (30 if you include the real monkey).
The broad brushstroke characters include a fire-and-brimstone preacher, his naive daughter, a cynical journalist, the plucky defendant and a whole hick-town’s worth of god-fearing plebs.
But ultimately the only two characters who matter are the attorneys – Kevin Spacey’s sardonic world-weary defence lawyer, Drummond, versus David Troughton’s messianic prosecutor, Brady.
There is no more engrossing battle on the London stage.
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