![]() ![]() This version of To Kill a Mockingbird did not arrive on Broadway in 2018 without some controversy. That’s when theater really comes to life. ![]() I would love to see Mockingbird performed in a theater in the round, on a thrust stage or in a storefront theater. There’s a distance between audience and cast that can’t be bridged, even by a great script. The play tells a powerful story, but the staging illustrated for me once again the unfortunate nature of the century-old proscenium-style theater. The delightful and authentic set is designed by Miriam Buether, with costumes by Ann Roth, lighting by Jennifer Tipton, sound by Scott Lehrer, and an original score by Adam Guettel. Some scene changes are performed by the kids and crew dressed in period costumes. I’m sure the director will address that by the time you see the play.īackstage mechanisms raise and lower the Finches’ front porch, and various house interiors. Although the last 20 minutes included important details and events, the play was beginning to drag. To Kill a Mockingbird is supposed to run 2 hours and 30 minutes including one intermission but it ran just a few minutes shy of 3 hours on opening night. Photo credit: Julieta Cervantes.Īnd Boo Radley (Travis Johns), the mysterious neighbor, lurks unseen throughout the play, until he appears near the end, a Jim-Jarmusch lookalike, and makes friends with Scout. Justin Mark, Richard Thomas, Melanie Moore and Steven Lee Johnson. (Badham played Scout in the 1962 film she was 10 years old at the time.) Henry Dubose (Mary Badham) is the Finches’ mean-spirited, drug-addicted racist neighbor. Link Deas (Anthony Natale) provides important testimony in court for Tom Robinson and is sympathetic to Maycomb’s Black community. Judge Taylor (Richard Poe), is witty and wise and perhaps more sympathetic to Constitutional principles than you might expect a Southern judge to be. Mockingbird has several indelible characters who play supporting roles. It’s always yesterday.” And of course, we immediately think to ourselves, “And it’s today, too.” When Atticus makes a reference to the Civil War, Jem protests that the Civil War was 70 years ago. One of my favorite scenes, late in the play, comes when Jem is seriously frustrated with the state of democracy and the justice system. ![]() And he treats these conversations with his children seriously, without trying to sidestep or sugarcoat his responses to their sometimes probing questions. Atticus is more than just a father he’s a teacher and a moralist without being moralistic. Those conversations, and Atticus’ talks with the three young people, are some of the finest moments of the play. Calpurnia responds, “Well, let me see if I can find a way to relate to that.” She also reminds him about white privilege when he says the children shouldn’t have to be afraid to walk around where they live. Calpurnia takes a realistic view of her fellow Maycomb citizens and she doesn’t hesitate to tell Atticus what she thinks about his open-hearted views. She and Atticus have serious conversations about the state of life in Maycomb. The Finch household is managed by Calpurnia (Jacqueline Williams, a fine Chicago actor who we have seen in many plays at Goodman, Court and Steppenwolf theaters). Jacqueline Williams and Richard Thomas, foreground. (We learn that Ewell, father of a large brood of children, doesn’t hesitate to brutalize them, including 19-year-old Mayella.) ![]() Mayella’s father, the violent racist drunk Bob Ewell (Joey Collins), threatens Atticus for defending a Black man and brings out the local Klan members, who threaten brutality against both Atticus and his client. That connection results in a charge of rape against Robinson, and Atticus becomes his defense attorney. He’s a soft-spoken Black man who occasionally does some chores for Mayella Ewell (Arianna Gayle Stucki) because he feels sorry for her. And Atticus Finch (thoughtfully played by Richard Thomas) is still a good man, a fine lawyer and perhaps just a bit naïve in his faith in the “good people of Maycomb.”īartlett Sher, who directed the Broadway production, directs this touring production with a careful hand and no hesitation in showing the violent racism of a small town in 1930s Alabama. Mockingbird is still set in 1934 in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. Richard Thomas as Atticus in the courtroom. ![]()
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