Inherit The Wind at Corn Exchange next week

Controversy guaranteed...Inherit The Wind comes to the Corn Exchange later this month (submitted pic)

For the past few years he’s taken on productions that not many provincial theatre groups would touch, given the controversy around them.

Last year he scored a double hit with his stagings of The Calendar Girls at both the Biggar Little Festival and - pretty much through sheer, good ol’ public demand - at Lanark’s Memorial Hall.

Having dealt sensitively with the subject of topless middle-aged ladies, BJ moves on to even touchier ground with his take on the classic drama Inherit The Wind.

Most folks will know this 1920s stage hit through its 50s film incarnation starring Spencer Tracy.

The plotline is based on the true `Monkey Trial’ case of a teacher in the Deep South of the USA being prosecuted for teaching his pupils the Theory of Evolution, regarded as blasphemy then - as now - in parts of the `Bible Belt’.

After months of rehearsals the show is now ready to start its short run on March 18, 19, 20 and 21 in the Biggar Little Theatre in the Corn Exchange, curtains up at 7.30pm on each night.

The tickets are only £10 each and are now on sale from the Oxfam Shop in Lanark and from Hamilton’s Newsagents in Biggar High Street.

For more on this story pick up a copy of this week’s Carluke and Lanark Gazette, which is in the shops now.