One of the biggest casts ever to appear on the stage of the New Vic at Newcastle-under-Lyme will bring to life the American drama Inherit the Wind.
Nearly 40 professional and community actors will perform Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee’s classic in the Staffordshire theatre-in-the-round. Sixteen professionals will be joined by members of the New Vic’s Borderlines programme, which works with some of Staffordshire’s most disadvantaged people, and its youth theatre.
Inspired by real-life events in 1925 Tennessee, Inherit the Wind involves an unassuming high-school teacher finding himself at the centre of a worldwide controversy.
On a scorching-hot day in the small, Bible-belt town of Hillsboro, biology teacher Bertram Cates stands accused. His crime? Teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution to his children.
Director Peter Leslie Wild said, “This is a play which is so worth staging in terms of the controversy of evolutionism versus creationism which still seems to be going on today—how we teach evolution is still ringing out within some education circles.
“You also don’t often get the opportunity to work with such a large cast. I’m thrilled to be working with the community on this production because it fits in with the traditions of the New Vic’s history.
“It’s going to be wonderful to see the New Vic’s stage filled with so many people who’ve been involved in other projects around the theatre such as Borderlines and within the education department.”
Inherit the Wind runs at the New Vic from Saturday (31 May) until Saturday 14 June.