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Aug. 23--It's easy to imagine Charles Darwin spinning in his grave as Creationism, in the guise of Intelligent Design, rises up to challenge his theory of evolution once again. A little too easy.
Playwright Crispin Whittell doesn't tarry long on that easy route to "Darwin in Malibu." Although Gary Hygom's shingled, earth-tone set for the U.S. premiere at Bay Street Theatre re-creates an oceanfront deck that suggests the Hamptons, the shirt Hal Linden sports in his role of Charles Darwin gives him away as a Malibu tourist. What's drawn him to the West Coast is uncertain: perhaps a girl, Sarah (Anna Chlumsky), who kisses him chastely on the cheek and serves him a banana smoothie, or his fascination with faults -- the geologic sort that cause earthquakes as devastating as the one that jolted religion upon publication of his "The Origin of Species" in 1859.
Soon enough, we learn that he's here to rehash the famous meeting of the British Association at Oxford, England, in which Thomas Huxley (Neal Huff) debated Bishop Samuel Wilberforce. Legend has it that when the bishop asked if Huxley were descended from an ape on his grandmother's or his grandfather's side, he replied that he would rather have an ape than a bishop for an ancestor.
Huxley materializes at Darwin's Malibu retreat. Through the obvious and repetitive imagery of Wilberforce (Richard Easton) arriving with loads of baggage, we suspect that Whittell's resurrection of the combatants of this debate will devolve into a purgatorial ganging-up against religion. Neo-Creationists certainly have supplied enough ammunition for ridicule. But the resulting dramatic effect would bear about as much heft as a Jay Leno monologue.
That's where "Darwin in Malibu" seems headed after a mildly amusing Act I. Act II provides more laughs at the bishop's expense as he uses scripture to calculate the biomass of Noah's Ark. But Wilberforce deploys sentiment to challenge intellectual smugness about faith; he wants to be in Heaven, if only to join his dead wife. It's a longing shared by Darwin, who lost his wife and daughter, and even by the otherwise implacable Huxley. Their debate ultimately embraces the human need to believe, since we presume that our species is unique in knowing that we will die.
Linden gives us a Darwin we can relate to, quoting astrological forecasts next to his evolutionary tenets, all the while making himself as familiar as a favorite uncle. Easton makes a clownishly effective foil, not so easily dismissed, while as Huxley, Huff represents modern man's glibness in his dismissal of the spiritual. As the enigmatic Sarah, Chlumsky exudes that which men, co-creatures of evolution, would naturally select, while not appearing to try.
Daniel Gerroll's astute direction of this debate demonstrates that we've evolved -- a little.
DARWIN IN MALIBU. By Crispin Whittell. U.S. premiere production at Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor, through Sept. 3. Tickets $45-$60. Call 631-725-9500 or visit baystreet.org. Seen opening night, Saturday.
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