NEW YORK (AP) ¿ Evolution, schmevolution.

The continuing clash between faith and reason is the subject of "Trumpery'', the new play by Peter Parnell now on view at off-Broadway's Atlantic Theater Company.

"Trumpery" takes the debate to its source, Charles Darwin, and we meet the great scientist in 1858, one year before the groundbreaking "Origin of the Species" is published. After 20 years of work, he's arrived at his theory of natural selection, but is afraid to publish. He doesn't want to be the one to take God away from his family and the world at large.

"If I finish the book, I'm a killer," he tells his friend and supporter Thomas Huxley, "If I publish, I murder God."

Darwin agonises over losing his faith and over the repercussions his scientific ideas will have on his family, particularly for his wife, Emma, a devout churchgoer. He's also very troubled by the letter he recently received from fellow scientist Alfred Wallace detailing the very ideas in Darwin's own unfinished manuscript.

His friends and supporters, anatomist Huxley and botanist Joseph Hooker, persuade him to let them present his ideas before Wallace can publish; they will promote the Darwin-Wallace theory of natural selection. Wallace's visit to Darwin in Act 2 prompts more internal torment: He fears Wallace has come for his day of reckoning.

There are fascinating ideas here and Parnell makes good use of biographical detail in attempting to portray the private life of a notable man. Unfortunately, his script is too cliche-ridden and obviously sentimental to add much to the evolution vs. intelligent design discussion.

David Esbjornson's astute direction elicits carefully crafted performances from his actors. Michael Cristofer, as Darwin, brings a great deal of vulnerability and compassion to the role; he is well-partnered with the cautiously hopeful Bianca Amato, as Emma. Supporting players are also excellent ¿ especially Michael Countryman as the loyal Hooker, Neal Huff as the excitable Huxley and Manoel Feliciano as the idealistic Wallace.

The set, by Tony Award-winning Santo Loquasto, could not be better. It is a pastoral fantasy of an English garden, complete with long tree branches creating a canopy over the stage. Costumes, by Jane Greenwood, are perfectly suited to England's late 19th-century leisure class of academics.

Darwin may have lost his belief in God but towards the end of the production, Wallace advises him to "try and take comfort ... in the fact that there is so much even you cannot control. For you, like the rest of us, are, finally, only human."