This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
The Wider Earth
Natural History Museum, London
SHREWSBURY is very proud if its most famous son, Charles Darwin.
A statue of the venerable scientist, replete with magnificent beard, dominates the entrance to the library, a shopping centre has been named in his honour — he'd have been touched, I’m sure — and Quantum Leap, a travesty of municipal sculpture was erected to celebrate the bicentenary of his birth. A lesson, as if one were needed, in the hubris of Tory-dominated local government
So as a native of the town I was quite at home in the opening scenes of David Morton’s play The Wider Earth. In it, Darwin – not the bearded, established naturalist but an eager and bright young graduate in Bradley Foster's characterisation – journeys through the Shropshire countryside in 1831.
It was the start of an adventure on board HMS Beagle which would take him to the other side of the world and towards a theory of evolution by natural selection that would shake its very foundations.
The Wider Earth is an easy watch. The dialogue isn’t challenging and there's plenty of exposition, though Darwin’s conversations with the Beagle’s Captain Fitzroy (Jack Parry-Jones) and resident missionary (Ian Houghton), while encapsulating the implications of his theory for Christianity, are somewhat heavy-handed.
But what the production lacks in content, it makes up for in visual effects. With minimal but clever staging, vibrant backdrops and intricate puppetry from the Handspring Puppet Company, complete with darting iguanas, stately tortoises and quivering butterflies, it’s a strangely mesmeric experience and must be fascinating for children.
Yet, watching a well-spoken young man prepare for his voyage from the cosy elegance of his Georgian townhouse I couldn't help but think that Darwin – son of wealthy parents, pupil at Shrewsbury School and student at Cambridge – was immensely privileged.
Perhaps it’s time for a play instead about Alfred Russel Wallace, another naturalist who, independently of Darwin, formed a theory of evolution by natural selection.
Coming from a relatively poor family he was mostly self-taught and, in order to fund his passions and expeditions, knew a thing or two about a hard day’s work.
Runs until February 24, box office: nhm.co.uk.
