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[Event listing courtesy of Linda Hench]
In 1935, Sinclair Lewis looked at the situation in Europe and the popularity of Louisiana politician Huey Long, and published a novel, It Can’t Happen Here, a cautionary tale on authoritarianism and the rise of fascism in America. A year later, Lewis and John Moffitt adapted the novel into a play with the same title. Since then, a reading version of the play, first created for radio, has been developed.
That reading, It Can’t Happen Here, will be produced Thursday, April 30, at 7 p.m. in the Sudbury Meetinghouse at First Parish in Sudbury.
Linda Hench, wife of Representative Carmine Gentile, is spearheading the effort.
“A friend in the Berkshires is coordinating an effort to present this reading in as many communities as possible. I wanted to bring it to Sudbury,” Hench said. “The play runs about 2 hours, but we are just doing Part 1 which runs about an hour, and then we will have a discussion,” facilitated by Katina Fontes, a Goodnow Library trustee and the owner of Athina Books.
The reading is open to the public and admission is free.
The event is co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Sudbury, First Parish of Sudbury UU, Sudbury Meetinghouse and Athina Books.
It Can’t Happen Here is a dystopian novel by Sinclair Lewis that follows the election as President of Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, a populist U.S. Senator who turns America into a fascist dictatorship. Through the eyes of Vermont newspaper editor Doremus Jessup, the story depicts the rapid dismantling of democracy, the rise of a brutal paramilitary force (the Minute Men), and the subsequent suppression of civil liberties, leading to the imprisonment of critics.