Primate Debate at the IOP

The spotlights of the John F. Kennedy Forum at the Institute of Politics (IOP) highlighted an unconventional group of guests this Monday evening, as the IOP entertained a full house with a blast from the past.

Actors from L.A. Theatre Works presented their rendition of “The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial,” adapted from the original transcripts of the 1925 trial of John Scopes, a science teacher charged with teaching evolution in the classroom.

The trial was the first of its kind to be sensationalized in the media through the radio, and it was the nation’s first widespread debate on the teaching of evolution in public schools.

The show took no explicit stance on the issue, but provided insight into the changing state of science education in America throughout the century.

Headlining the show was television personality and activist Ed Asner, well-known for his role on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” as the prosecution attorney and three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.

Other notable cast members included John De Lancie from Star Trek, who played the role of defense attorney and public agnostic Clarence Darrow.

But this performance wasn’t all about the theatre stars.

“Make no mistake, my friends, the battle between evolution and Christianity is a fight to the death!” Asner proclaimed in the role of Bryan at the start of the performance.

Before the show, the crowd was asked to emulate the reactions of the audience back in 1925. Transforming their perceptions to those of townsfolk in rural Tennessee, spectators cheered for many of Bryan’s appeals to creationism and hissed at Darrow’s agnostic arguments.

The most bitter yelling and name-calling was saved for the final battle of wits and words between heavy-hitters Bryan and Darrow.

Darrow surprised the audience by calling Bryan to the witness stand, on the premise of his Bible expertise. Darrow succeeded in lampooning the aging statesman and the audience was brought to laughter when a flustered Bryan responded to a tough question with “I do not think about what I do not think about!”

In the end, Bryan and his creationist views were morally defeated. The narrator then described the aftermath of the trial, including the death of Bryan just five days after the verdict was issued.

“And in our conclusion of the performance, we talk about the fact that even though the trial was declared a mistrial, it spread the dampening of Darwinism throughout much of the Bible belt,” Asner said in an interview with The Crimson.

“Not until the Russians put Sputnik up did we realize that our teaching of science was becoming slapdash,” he added.

Director of the IOP Jeanne Shaheen said that she was enthusiastic about the presentation of drama at the Institute.

“We had been thinking about other kinds of political engagement that we could do in the forum other than speakers and debates,” Shaheen said. “It’s exactly the kind of dramatic program we’d like to do in the forum.”