Silver Spring Stage is located in the Woodmoor Shopping Center, lower level (next to the CVS) at Colesville Road and University Boulevard. Ticket prices range from $13 to $18. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday matinees on July 8 and July 22 at 2:00 PM. Tickets can be purchased at www.ssstage.org. Information is also available by calling (301) 593-6036.

Ever since the headlines shouted that two teen millionaires were arrested for the motive-less murder of a 14-year-old boy and America’s most famous defense attorney Clarence Darrow stunned the court and pled guilty and mercy for them to escape the noose, the Leopold and Loeb story has fascinated the public and writers. This was the first “Trial of the Century” driven by unprecedented press coverage. There are no less than five versions both non-fictional and fictional about the brilliant privileged boys who misinterpreted Nietzsche’s Ubermensch or Superman philosophy to commit a perfect crime. John Logan chose them for Never the Sinner as the subject of his first play in 1985. A graduate of Northwestern University, Logan poured over the court transcripts and newspapers to fashion a compelling theatrical piece interweaving direct testimony and abbreviated versions of both Darrow’s storied summation and the combative prosecutor Robert Crowe closing statement. Never the Sinner premiered in Chicago and won the Outer Critic's Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play in 1998. Earlier depictions include Meyer Levin’s book and film Compulsion, the play and film Rope and movie Swoon and most recently a musical. The elements of the story remain thrilling and relevant today: the complex relationship between Leopold and Loeb, the debate on capital punishment, the role of the media in society, and the exclusive human gift of mercy, which we struggle to this day to achieve.

Chicago, May 21, 1924 – the city is flush with the jazz age, Prohibition, gangsters and new ideas and freedoms. College students Nathan (Babe) Leopold Jr. (Ryan Manning) and Richard (Dick) Loeb (Sam Ludwig), inspired by their reading of Nietzsche's philosophy, kill 14-year-old Bobby Franks. Ambitious State’s Attorney Robert Crowe (David Gorsline) leads the investigation. Mistakes made by the youths result in their arrest. Clarence Darrow (Craig Miller) takes their case and pleads eloquently for their lives. The Trial of the Century introduces the first comprehensive psychological profile of defendants with unprecedented media coverage of their personalities. Reporters (Robin Covington, Chris Curtis and Jacob Yeh), who also assume the roles of psychiatrists and witnesses, lead the audience through this intoxicating story of why and how these two young men could commit such a merciless crime and a principled and passionate attorney challenges them and a nation to reason and judgment and understanding, “and that mercy is the highest attribute of man.”

The production team includes Megan Dreisbach (Assistant Director/Stage Manager), Bruce Starr (Set Design/Set Painting), Don Slater (Lighting Design), Kevin Garrett (Sound Design), Eric Scerbo (Costume Design), John Buckley (Set Construction), and Sonya Okin (Set Dressing/Properties).

Never the Sinner is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French.