<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16939" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Inherit the
Wind</SPAN></I></B><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> hits Play House
stage with gale force<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Bob
Abelman<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">News-Herald,
Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times
Courier<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Member,
International Association of Theatre Critics <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">This
review appeared in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">News-Herald
</I>11/6/09</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">It is unlikely a
theater’s production schedule is influenced by divine intervention. Still, it’s
no coincidence that <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Inherit the Wind</I>
happens to be playing at the Cleveland Play House during the very month Charles
Darwin’s <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">On the Origin of Species</I> was
published 150 years ago.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps
intelligent design or natural selection is at work.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Inherit the Wind</I> is J</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">erome
Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s dramatization of the 1925 Scopes Trial, in which a
small-town schoolteacher is accused of introducing evolution to his class in
violation of Tennessee state law.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>He is prosecuted by the fervently religious </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">biblical
literalist</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
Matthew Harrison Brady and defended by the agnostic </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">civil libertarian
</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Henry
Drummond.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">This
play offers an eloquently worded debate over creationism and
evolution.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">It
provides social commentary on the inalienable </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">rights of free
thought and free speech, written as it was in the midst of <SPAN
style="COLOR: #333333">1950’s McCarthyism</SPAN>.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">But, mostly, it
delivers a brilliant piece of theater—a </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">dramatic
collision between two outspoken, dynamic, feuding attorneys on opposite sides of
the fence.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As they vie for position
in the pressure cooker of a sweltering southern courthouse, we are witness to a
survival of the fittest that makes the Galapagos </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">tortoises
seem like pet turtles.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">When
this Tony Award-winning play premiered on Broadway in 1955, it featured the
legendary Paul Muni and Ed Begley as the attorneys.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The play was adapted for the screen in
1960 with Spencer Tracy and Fredric March in the lead roles.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It was revived on Broadway in 1996
starring Charles Durning and George C. Scott and brought back again in 2007 with
</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Christopher Plummer
and Brian Dennehy.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">The CPH
production<SPAN style="COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"> features
veteran New York stage actors </SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: black">Ed Dixon (<I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">August: Osage County, Night of the
Iguana</I>) and Scott Jaeck (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Sunday in
the Park with George, The Best Man</I>) as Brady and Drummond,
respectively.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Dixon
and Jaeck live up to the legacy of past performers, creating rich and textured
portrayals.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Each man is a
commanding presence on the stage, yet they take great pains to balance each
other out, so as not to tip the scale toward one side of the debate over the
other and ruin the drama.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Both
men understand and appreciate the power in the words they are given, and deliver
them with flair and nuance.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">The
lead players are surrounded by a core of experienced local professionals as well
as an ensemble of talented and disciplined third-year students in the
CWRU/Cleveland Play House MFA Acting Program.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A few second-year students should have
joined them, for actors double-up as various town-folk, which makes the town
look sparse.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Scott
Plate is wonderful as the articulate and acid-tongued journalist E.K.
Hombeck.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He has some of the most
poetic lines in the play, and speaks them with a big-city sarcasm that comes
across as particularly thick and sticky in the southern humidity.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mark Alan Gordon does a nice turn as
Reverend Jeremiah Brown, the fire-and-brimstone protector of small-town souls.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Most
performers, including Dudley Swetland as the Judge, Tom White as the accused
Bertram Cates, and Mark Monday as local law-enforcer Mr. Meekers, do a marvelous
job of neutralizing the occasional </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">preachiness and
flair-ups of overt sentimentality that are inherent in <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Inherit the Wind</I>.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The show’s quick pace and fluid staging,
courtesy of director Seth Gordon, facilitate this.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Other actors, such as Sarah Nedwek as
the preacher’s daughter, deliver fine performances but are less successful at
brushing the dust off their classic characters.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">The
Drury Theatre stage is filled with a superb set by Michael Raiford that captures
the rural quaintness of Hillsboro while providing an arena-like atmosphere
suitable for the spectacle of its trial.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Set changes are seamless, and dramatic lighting by Trad Burns and
understated period costuming by Charlene Alexis Gross add layers to the
production’s atmosphere.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">In
a time when signs promoting John 3:16 (“</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">For God
so loved the world that He gave His one and only son”) pop up at every
entertainment venue, it is refreshing to find </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Proverbs
11:23 (</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">“He
that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind”) the focus of
attention.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">It
is also refreshing to see such a familiar, time-honored play delivered with such
power, passion and pacing.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Inherit
the Wind</SPAN></I><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
continues through November 15 in The Cleveland Play House’s Drury Theatre.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For tickets, which range from $44 to
$64, call (</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">216) 795-7000 or
visit </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><A href=""><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandplayhouse.com</FONT></SPAN></A></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT
size=3>.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>