Spacey stars in Old Vic's Inherit the Wind
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
TREVOR Nunn will direct Kevin Spacey in Inherit the Wind, the first of two productions announced for the Old Vic’s new season. The second is David Grindley’s revival of John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation.
Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee’s modern classic, Inherit the Wind, runs from October 1 (previews from September 18) to December 20, 2009.
A fictionalised account of the 1925 Scopes ‘monkey’ trial, Inherit the Wind sees science teacher B.T. Cates arrested for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution to his students. At his ensuing trial, famous lawyer Henry Drummond (Spacey) defends him, while fundamentalist politician Matthew Brady prosecutes.
Inherit the Wind was adapted for film in 1960 and starred Spencer Tracy, Frederic March and Gene Kelly.
The Old Vic’s production of Inherit the Wind marks the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species.
Trevor Nunn returns to the Old Vic for the first time since 2005 when he directed Spacey in Richard II.
Inherit the Wind is followed – from January 19 (previews from January 7) to April 3, 2010 – by Six Degrees of Separation.
First performed on Broadway in 1990, Guare’s play is inspired by the true story of a flamboyant con artist who convinced wealthy residents of Manhattan’s Upper East Side that he was Sidney Poitier’s son.
In 1992, it received its London premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, with Stockard Channing reprising her Broadway role alongside Adrian Lester and Paul Shelley. That production went on to win the Olivier Award for Best New Play. And in 1993, it too was adapted for film, again starring Channing but this time with co-stars Donald Sutherland and Will Smith.
Like Nunn, Grindley has previously directed Spacey at the Old Vic – in National Anthems.
Sam Mendes’s Bridge Project, in which a transatlantic cast performs a double bill of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, continues at the Old Vic until August 15, 2009.
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