Peter Parnell’s “Trumpery,” at Olney Theatre Center, is set at Down House, England, the home of Charles Darwin (Ian LeValley). It’s June 1858, 27 years after Darwin boarded the H.M.S. Beagle and travelled around the world, finding on the Galapagos Islands many plant and animal species that were both similar to, and different from, those he found in South America.
If you go
“Trumpery”
Where: Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Sunday
Info: $26 to $54; 301-924-3400; olneytheatre.org
When he returned to London, Darwin’s notes and collected specimens led him to conclude that gradual evolution did exist and that it was dependent on a process called natural selection. But he didn’t publish his findings right away. He kept researching until, in 1858, he received a letter from a young naturalist named Alfred Wallace (Jeffries Thaiss) who claimed he had hit upon the idea of natural selection as the mechanism of evolution. Parnell’s play begins at the point where Darwin is experiencing a crisis, afraid that his years of research will go for naught if Wallace publishes his writings first. Helped by his friends Hooker (Shelley Bolman) and Huxley (Nick DePinto), Darwin comes up with a way to take credit for the theory and secondarily recognize Wallace.
Director Jim Petosa creates an engaging portrait of a man and an era, where a fascinating debate stirred up not only scientific waves but religious fervor as well. The paternalistic Owen (James Slaughter) represents the conservative thinkers in London at the time. He is on hand to chastise Darwin for daring to suggest that there might be an alternative to the creation model of the universe’s origin.
Parnell’s Darwin is not a happy man. He has a chronic stomach ailment; he is a compulsive note-taker, using his own children as research subjects; he is tortured by his inability to reconcile his belief in science with a belief in God; he is devastated by the loss of his daughter, Annie (played well by Hannah Lane Farrell). LeValley vividly portrays Darwin’s mental and physical pain. Christine Hamel is convincing as Darwin’s wife, who loves her impossible husband despite his lapsed faith.
In the Olney production there are two characters who are particularly taking: Huxley and Wallace. As portrayed by DePinto, Huxley is a brash, self-confident young man. Until he enters, the play is full of controlled, low-wattage conversation. Huxley comes on like a burst of colorful neon lights.
As played by Thaiss, Wallace is not only a brilliant naturalist, he’s a man of the future: a Socialist, a man who believes in collaboration and cooperation rather than fighting and competition. Wallace is also the only explorer to reveal his love of exploration. His description of what it was like to experience masses of jaguars, butterflies and bats in Malaysia is a moving hymn to nature.
Scene designers Jeremy Foil and James Kronzer create an impressionistic Down House, with floor to ceiling bookshelves and papers hanging down on invisible wires to suggest endless writing. At the rear of the stage is a huge round sphere, lit by Daniel MacLean Wagner, sometimes mimicking the sun, sometimes the moon, providing a sense of ever-present nature. Elisheba Ittoop’s effective sound design suggests a world rich with earthy noises, deep drum beats, the echoing calls of monkeys and exotic birds.
“Trumpery” is only superficially about the race to publish on the subject of evolution. Although he mixes in a good amount of humor, Parnell’s real subjects-faith, ethics, responsibility and man’s place in the universe — are serious, intriguing and as compelling today as they were in 1848.
