Review: Richard Coppinger Gives One of the Year's Best Performances in INHERIT THE WIND at Stageworks

"Trust those who seek the truth but doubt those who say they have found it." --Andre Gide

"The fella who says he's got everything figured out is probably a damn fool." --Henry Drummond in INHERIT THE WIND

The local audience tittered when a character first said the town's name. INHERIT THE WIND takes place in Hillsboro, Tennessee. But at the Stageworks' production of the show in Tampa, when we hear "Hillsboro," we think "Hillsborough" as in our Florida county, and it makes the play suddenly seem immediate, something taking place RIGHT HERE and not in the dark corners of the Bible Belt. I overheard one person in the audience ask if they had changed the name of the town for local audiences. But no, it takes place in a different Hillsboro (with a different spelling) in a different state, but that's the power of the show--it still connects with us, after all these years. It might as well be Hillsborough County. Jerome Lawrence's and Robert Edwin Lee's play, based on the actual Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, still seems timely 60 years after it was written and 91 years after the famous trial on evolution took place.

Stageworks' production of INHERIT THE WIND is good, not great, but it includes one performance that is one of the best I've seen all year. Richard Coppinger as Henry Drummond, the fish-out-of-water lawyer based on Clarence Darrow, is just stunning. There is not one false move in anything he does, and when he enters the stage, he sparks the play's action and the other actors as well. (When he wasn't present, it was pretty slow going at times.) His performance is so good that sometimes I wondered if this production of INHERIT THE WIND should be retitled "The Richard Coppinger Show."

Full of verve and honesty, Coppinger's work is the one thing I took with me as I left the theatre--this multi-leveled, gutsy, hilarious, laser-sharp and very human portrayal based on one of history's iconic men (and finest lawyers). And the success of the part does not stem from his playing someone on the right side of history. I believe that even if you are a fiery fundamentalist who is against Evolution and believe that Satan planted the dinosaur bones for us to ultimately doubt God (and yes, some people still believe that), then Coppinger's Drummond may change your mind. It's a mesmerizing performance where the actor's voice, movement, and honesty culminate in one of the great acting feats of the year.

Playing his opponent in the trial, the town's favorite holier than thou out-of-state politician, is another one of our finest local actors, Jim Wicker. Tall and commanding with a powerful voice, Wicker is always a towering presence onstage, and his size difference with Coppinger works quite well here. In his shows over the years, Wicker tackles each of his roles cerebrally and earnestly, digging deep to find the truth. Those attributes work well for certain roles, but Matthew Harrison Brady, based on William Jennings Bryan, the populist hero and the finest orator of the early 20th Century, is not a cerebral soul. He is all stubbornness and fervor, and he would eventually be ruined by his one sin--pride. Wicker is all wrong for those qualities. When he gives a speech, we don't hear that great orator who ran (and lost) his bid for the presidency a whopping three times. And when he's on the stand as an expert on the Bible, cross-examined by Drummond, we don't get the sense of his emotional public drowning where he feels that he has fallen in the eyes of his once-adoring public. Here's a man whose hubris gets him in a tangle that he cannot escape; he is so immovable in his beliefs that he eventually dies rather than face a changing world. Wicker strongly goes through the motions, and spars admirably with Coppinger's Drummond (he has some great lines), but something is missing.

Don't get me wrong, Wicker does not give a bad performance. I particularly like his relationship with his wife, a small but important part well-played by Dawn Truax. I just found his Brady too calm and controlled throughout, too levelheaded, not heated and self-righteous enough to be the stirring, sweaty blowhard modeled after Bryan. I know this is by choice, to try to create a three-dimensional character and not an over-the-top caricature that Brady can become. But if Wicker's Brady is the Lord's champion, and Coppinger's Drummond the devil (as characters in the play suggest), then the devil wins in this production, hands down.

Dennis Duggan, another one of our finest local actors, has one scene as Reverend Brown that displays his considerable acting chops--a hell, fire and damnation-plus speech where he goes off on his own daughter. It's a truly terrifying turn, and we're glad when it is eventually interrupted by Brady (to show that Brady's unwavering worldview was relatively benign when compared to that of the rabid townies). Joseph Parra is extraordinarily likable as the Judge. Slake Counts is out of control wild as a true believer who lets loose during the Reverend's volcanic sermon. Nathan Juliano has his moments as Davenport. And Chris Hancock, a student at Blake High School, is wide-eyed and enthusiastic as Timmy; he does well in the courtroom scenes with Wicker and Coppinger.

Ryan Bernier as Cates, the man on trial for teaching evolution in a classroom, certainly looks the part and comes across quite natural onstage. However, due to projection issues, I could not hear and understand all of his words. As his girlfriend, Rachel, Roxxi Jaxx gives an emotionally charged portrayal. We believe her struggle as she's torn between her boyfriend's beliefs and her father's. Unfortunately, again, it was sometimes hard to hear her.

Jon Gennari as Hornbeck, the mocking Baltimore reporter based on HL Mencken, is obviously talented with great potential, but we just don't believe him as a bigger-than-life, seen-everything sarcastic reporter. The part is the third lead, but you would never know it here. Imagine, if you dare, a man who is part Bill O'Reilly and part Chris Matthews--constantly dripping with cynicism and belittlement at the local yokels and their values. That's what is needed. But Gennari's voice is too thin for the role, and we can't hear or understand all that he says. These projection and enunciation issues become problematic when it's more than one performance that has been inflicted with this syndrome. I understand the need to keep the show believable and real; but what good is a performance, even one that may be incredibly moving, if we cannot hear it in the intimate Stageworks Theatre? (After intermission, one man sitting behind me actually moved to the onstage courtroom seats, where audience members could choose to sit, because he could not understand several cast members and wanted a closer seat in order to hear them.)

The ensemble does fine, sometimes hit or miss, and some of the accents of the denizens seemed all over the place.

Director C. David Frankel knows how to create wonderful stage pictures. I really like how he keeps the relatively large cast moving--the show is rightfully paced for the most part, especially when Coppinger owns the stage. Frankel also uses every section of the theatre--the audience, the steps--to create the anti-Darwin fever of 1925. No matter where we sit--in the house, or in the courtroom seats onstage--the audience becomes part of the action. And the scenes with overlapping dialogue were masterfully directed, like something out of a Robert Altman film. There is an intelligence and decency in Frankel's direction, and he has guided an overall solid production.

Jerid Fox's set serves the show quite well, and Ryan Finzelber's lighting is fine for the most part. However, the lighting that tried to capture the effect of ceiling fans seemed distracting to me; I would rather see real overhead fans hanging down (there was plenty of room on the set for them). Matt Cowley's sound design was okay, but too often the show relied on the pre-recorded sound of the crowd rather than the onstage (and in-house) cast members. Also, why some characters were recorded (such as a foreign reporter) rather than live remains a mystery.

INHERIT THE WIND is still quite timely, sadly so. Not just the issues at hand (creationism versus evolution) but in how we deal with them. Our country is still divided on religious grounds, maybe more than ever. And there is a coarseness and a lack of empathy out there these days, many of these vices ironically coming from some of the more religious members of our country (and world). In this era where something like Idiocracy looks like a documentary, maybe another Scopes-like trial will rear its head. Maybe we will still need to defend our "ability to think." It's sad that, 91 years after the events of the play, we still haven't evolved that much as a society, have we?

INHERIT THE WIND plays until March 27th at the Stageworks Theatre located in the Channelside District.

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