Inherit The Wind

True life is the stuff of great art—an axiom put to great use in Inherit the Wind, a play loosely based upon the infamous Scopes “monkey trial.” Written in 1955, the script re-imagines the plight of John Scopes, the high school biology teacher who, in 1925, was famously prosecuted for teaching evolution theory. Both the sixty-year-old script and the ninety-year-old trial are still timely, with evolution versus creationism continuing to dog our public school teachers. (All of this makes us question any theory that suggests humans—especially lawmakers—might actually be evolving.) This staging is part of Fifty Foot Penguin’s “anti-Christmas show” tradition, offering a dramatic courtroom battle a la The Crucible and Twelve Angry Men. Cedar Riverside People’s Center, 425 S. 20th Ave., Minneapolis; 612-381-1110; www.fiftyfootpenguin.org