One might think that coming to grips with the Clarence Brown Theatre’s latest production, an intensely provocative staging of Inherit the Wind, would be an easy task. In truth, as theatre-goers in 2025, we often struggle with the image that a dramatic mirror reflects for us. The 1955 play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee is a fictionalized take on the 1925 “Scopes Monkey Trial” in Dayton, Tennessee, and as such, cannot avoid the obvious plot debate of science vs. religion that shamefully defined the original trial. The playwrights, though, were anxious to broaden their premise so that it encompass more dramatic territory—in this case, the freedom to think without fear. Current day issues were also a factor.