“I have come to the heterodox conclusion that there are no such thing?as independently created species. I know this will make you despise me.”

So says Charles Darwin, reciting from a letter he’s written to American botanist, Asa Gray. With an air of finality, Darwin shuts a book and places it on a side table, but misses it by inches so that it falls to the floor with an inelegant thud. Darwin cracks a smile; across the stage Asa Gray bursts out laughing.

That was my recent introduction to Re: Design, a play culled from nearly forty years of correspondence between Darwin and Gray, the Harvard naturalist who was an early adherent of evolution but, unlike Darwin, remained a devout Christian.

Fortunately the loss of composure took place during a dress rehearsal. At a performance later that night in Toronto the book ended up where? it was supposed to, as did the audience, after experiencing Darwin’s and Gray’s powerful and reflective conversation.

Story continues at http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/01/hollywoods-darwin-no-match-for-the-real-thing.php