Interview: James Phillips of BOBBY AND THE CHIMPS at Abbey Theater Of Dublin

According to British playwright James Phillips, inspiration can be found anywhere: a photograph, a fragment of a story, a sentence, or in the case of BOBBY AND THE CHIMPS, a winetasting. Phillips’ play makes its world premiere April 3-6 and 10-13 at the Abbey Theater of Dublin (5600 Post Road in Dublin).

“It’s a strange one,” Phillips recalled of the genesis of the play. “I was at a party in London and a producer I knew asked me if I would be interested in directing a production of ‘INHERIT THE WIND. I remember replying, and I remember it because it’s not really how I talk, ‘No, but it occurs to me that in the United States people run for election to school boards.’

“I’m not aware that before opening my mouth it had ever occurred to me that people run for election to school boards. But there was free wine at the party and out came that sentence.

“The sentence hung in the air, waiting to be claimed or not. The producer grasped it and commissioned the play. Suddenly I had to write one.”

Phillips’ slip of the tongue evolved into BOBBY AND THE CHIMPS. Set in Bethlehem, Pa., two ideologies plow headlong into each other in a local schoolboard election. On one side of the spectrum is Bobby Young (Jeff White), a staunch supporter of the theory of evolution. He believes it should be the only theory available to students.

His opponent in the election is Katie Westman (Lindsay Breslin), a creationist who believes the Biblical point of view should be the only one taught at a school.

However, as the play progresses, Bobby delves into his own beliefs which creates friction with his supporters. 

Rounding out the cast for the play are Julia Cannell (Amy Young), Rachel Scherrer (Mary Marissa Delaney), Niko Carter (Jude Holloway), Scott Douglas Wilson (Peter Lahm), Cindy Tran Nguyen (Andrea Lewis), Rusty Wummel (Thomas Wilson), Grace Emmenegger-Conrad (Jamie Hunt), Charles Easley (John Gray) and Alyssa Ryan (Kristen Carter).

After the Evolution Theatre and Abbey Theater of Dublin’s staged Phillips’ MCQUEEN in 2023, Phillips reached out to Abbey Theater supervisor Joe Bishara about reading BOBBY AND THE CHIMPS.

Bishara loved the message in the play.

“This play presents a poignant snapshot of the modern-day dilemma many face when belief, science and policy collide,” he said. “We are honored to be co-presenting the professional premiere of this play with Original Productions Theatre.”

Phillips called BOBBY his lost play. It was workshopped at the University of Southern Florida in 2009.

However, the producer who commissioned the piece was unable to produce the play and by the time Phillips obtained the rights to it, the playwright was on to other projects. The play has rested on Phillips’ shelf of works since.

“I really love BOBBY AND THE CHIMPS,” Phillips said. “It’s both a brand-new piece and a period piece. So much has changed (since I wrote it). I think Joe’s production might really show people where we are now.”

While the world might be a different place, the need for tolerance between opposing viewpoints is as relevant as it was in 2008 when BOBBY was written or in 1955 when INHERIT THE WIND debuted.

“Nowadays it’s very difficult for any discussions to remain peaceful, which is a terrible shame,” Phillips said. “It would be helpful- certainly in my country- if we could stop bellowing at each other and start talking again.

“Actually I wrote BOBBY because I was interested in two things: faith, and the idea that political relationships or big political ideas really start out between people who know each other. I liked the idea that people who know each other would decide to run a political campaign, and the staff would be their friends and lovers.”

Phillips said BOBBY was his first attempt at writing about an issue that gnawed at him when he was in college. ‘

“When I was at college there was a sense somehow that religion was going away, that the things that had animated people for thousands of years would melt into air,” he said. “This was at the same time people were flying airliners into buildings because of their religion.

“Faith moves mountains, faith steps in when all facts fail. We can’t live without it, even if we think we can. I wasn’t really writing about creationism- which I don’t believe to reflect literal truth- I was writing about the possible necessity of faith.”

Phillips has written 10 plays, including THE RUBENSTEIN KISS (2006), which captured both the John Whiting Award and the TMA Award for Best Play. 

Phillips has worn many hats during his career – actor, director, photographer, and playwright. The common thread among his many roles is storytelling.

“So many creative activities are essentially the same impulse but using different methods,” he said. “You are trying to explore and explain why something that you saw or you felt matters, and what it might mean.”

His love of story comes from his mother, Franchesca, an avid reader who passed that passion on to her son.  “I learnt you can imagine worlds, travel many miles without leaving the room,” he said.

The inspiration for Phillip’s most famous work THE RUBENSTEIN KISS started after the playwright was looking at a photograph of a couple kissing in the back of a police van.

The couple in the photo were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were on enroute to a trial after being accused of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. The couple was later executed.

Phillips recalls stumbling upon a book that had been misfiled in the fiction section.

“I think someone left it for me,” said Phillips, who was an actor and not a writer at the time. “The book cost 10 pounds, and I was very poor then, so I had a big debate about buying it. It seemed like an indulgence.

“I wonder about (what if I hadn’t seen that picture) an awful lot. I suspect an awful lot would be different in my life.”

One of the only things wrong with Abbey Theater of Dublin’s production, according to Phillips, is the location of his seat. The playwright is currently wrapped up in other projects and won’t be able to attend the show.

“Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it over,” Phillips said. “(Watching one of my plays with an audience) is the purest pleasure. When you sit in an audience and feel them move back and forth within the currents of a story you’ve written, it’s been one of the great privileges of my life. I hope they have a blast with it.”

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