BWW Reviews: Science and Religion Collide in Next Act's World Premiere TEN QUESTIONS

Science, religion, creationism. evolution--A debate where faith versus confirmed fact constructs a classroom drama touched with humor tiled Ten Questions to Ask your Biology Teacher about Evolution. Milwaukee's Next Act Theatre presents a World Premiere production written by Canadian playwright Stephen Massicotte in his two-act play centering on a science teacher Miss Kelly and her rather conscientious religious objector to the curriculum, a young man named Ray. While both characters struggle with loss and tragedy in their lives, their opposing cultural contexts help minimize their pain--Kelly quotes scientific statistics while Ray quotes Biblical scripture.

The acclaimed Milwaukee Rep Artistic Associate Deborah Staples puts on the difficult guise of Miss Kelly, a caring and sincere teacher who believes in her biology. She confronts the very intelligent although troublesome Ray, debuting Chicago actor Kyle Curry after class in detention and over lunch hour, while she hides away from other teachers in the school. Ray presses Kelly with his supposed "ten questions" she needs to answer regarding evolution, in the meantime giving her a Bible to read and then discuss throughout their often poignant meetings.

Every now and then, the school principal Mr. Lester played by Artistic Director David Cecsarini displays a complacent Catholicism, and enters to smooth the rifts between student and teacher while he counsels the beautiful Kelly. Their small Midwestern school system revels in religious righteousness, personified by Ray's mother Lynn Kessler, a distraught and staunch evangelical believer played by the equally talented and nuanced Mary MacDonald Kerr. Hence, Massicotte's quartet includes several factions playing into the eternal argument on who created the heavens and earth.

Northwestern University Theater Professor and Chicago Director Shawn Douglass returns to Milwaukee and places faith in his actors so these questions remain pertinent and viable in today's culture. Certainly the playwright evokes the Monkey Trials from decades ago when society questioned Darwin's Evolution Theory "a well tested idea as opposed to a hypothesis" Miss Kelly explains. Morisotte's arguments offer little new information, only more statistics and scripture from either side of the issue.

Instead, Morisotte's personal relationships engage the audience, and ask them to question why they believe either viewpoint, and what does a student need to learn in class to become an educated person? How can a person truly be educated without being familiar with either Darwin's Theory or the cultural context of the stories regarding creation? Indeed, both matter, influence American life, and are often referenced in literature, theater, and the arts,, while also being a political issue. Do students have the right to opt out of Biology class merely to evade being confronted with evolutionism, at least in public education? Each characters' emotions rise to the surface in the production, reflected from these various human concerns...While they ask the questions who will go to heaven and hell, and why does anyone need to choose either science or religion to study in school when young minds search for the truth?

Massicotte strives to give the audience a reconciliatory ending, accepting no winners or losers, at least for Raymond and Miss Kelly. They grow in their understanding, of each other, as human beings instead of descendants from monkeys, attempting to transform their tragedies into a better future ahead. Place faith in the truth that each person will continue searching for healing and a way to comprehend the complex world they live in, whether tangled in Midwest conservatism or the cosmopolitan East Coast. Miss Kelly and Ray become richer human beings in the classroom, even if Ray's mother may be unable to accept his transformation before she accuses Kelly of being an atheist. eventually removing her son from Miss Kelly's classroom where no examination of any facts or theories can be found.

Faith versus scientific fact continues to collide, and this absolutely compelling cast accomplishes an enlightening evening of entertainment, to challenge audiences with how both science and religion, or perhaps faith, might be taught to another generation. Whether someone finds faith in the universe above, that 'we are all related," as Kelly believes, or that an omnipotent God created and then saved a sinning human race, each person attending Ten Questions might come to understand another perspective. Understand another dimension to the world they live and walk in, a faith continually harder to appreciate as people become more polarized instead of more committed to healing each other. The truth is every person on either side of the controversy needs the other to survive in the world, whoever or however they believe it was created, in an effort to become more compassionate creatures in the process.

Next Act Theatre presents the World Premiere Ten Questions to Ask your Biology Teacher through May 3 at 255 South Water Street. For further information on performances or to subscribe to the 2015-2016 season, please call 414.278.0765 or www.nextact.org.

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