Director: Bartlett Sher
Writer: Harper Lee
Adapter: Aaron Sorkin
To Kill a Mockingbird has to be one of the most famous modern classics of recent generations. Thousands, probably millions, of school children have studied it intensely since it’s publication in 1960, and 65 years later it remains a scarily relevant narrative.
Three children, Scout (Anna Munden), Jem (Gabriel Scott) and Dill (Dylan Malyn) tell the story of the trial of Tom Robinson (Aaron Shosanya), a black man in 1930s Alabama, accused without even a shred of evidence of the rape of white farmer’s daughter Mayella (Evie Hargreaves). Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus Finch (Coupling’s Richard Coyle) is his lawyer, and Mayella’s Father Bob Ewell (Oscar Pearce) his accuser. Racial tension boils over in the courtroom and outside, and all the while Scout is just trying to solve the mystery of how a man could fall on his own knife, as well as find out more about mysterious, and possibly dangerous, neighbour Boo Radley (Harry Attwell).
As one of the small minority who has never read the book, your reviewer went in blind. And while the plot and assumed facts of the case are ultimately quite predictable, that fact only serves to highlight how very little has changed in society.
To Kill a Mockingbird the play has been adapted from Harper Lee’s original book by playwright Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin has purposefully enhanced the black voices from the novel, which helps save the play from quite so many of the White Saviour tropes the original is often criticised for, although the accusation is impossible to remove entirely. Finch’s maid Calpurnia (Andrea Davy) has been enhanced to give a voice to the anger and upset of the black community of the play, and Davy gives a blisteringly effective performance, explaining without labouring the issues the that audience members – especially a white audience member – should already feel discomfort over. Shosanya’s Tom is also very effectively scripted and stoically acted, a sense of having already given up permeating his actions. Of the remaining cast, it cannot be said that anyone is weak, despite a few sadly obvious line flubs, which will be corrected with time spent performing. Coyle is perfectly cast as Atticus Finch, giving a quiet and restrained performance of a man trying his best in impossible circumstances. Munden, Scott and especially Malyn are engaging narrators, with Dill being a truly heartbreaking character at key points. The comic timing between these three is excellent and helps to keep a level of lightness much needed in what is an undoubtedly dark show. That said, there does often seem to be a tendency to rush away from the darkest content – quite often it would be more effective to give the audience time to breathe and process an event or hard-hitting line, and the narration instead rushes in with a moment of, if not always levity, then certainly a distraction from the feelings. Let these moments sit for even a few moments longer.
The staging of the show is wonderful, with swiftly moving set pieces creating the courtroom, the jail and the Finch’s front porch. Set designer Miriam Buether has done an excellent job here. Having the courtroom designate a space for the Jury without actors is a great touch too, engaging the audience as these missing faces and adding an anonymity to judgement which is extra unsettling when considering current political tides.
To Kill a Mockingbird may be a 65 year old book, written when Jim Crow laws were only just on the way out, about an era where segregation and racism were casual and commonplace (and the language used in the play does not pull punches here). But with the recent Far Right marches in the UK, and a wave of anti-immigration and Nazi sympathy sweeping the shores of Britain and America, it cannot be said that its themes are so long forgotten that it has become a relic. This play is an important reminder that we do not want to be on the wrong side of history. Climb around in another person’s skin and walk around in it to know them better, but don’t allow those dark days to return.
Runs until 4th October 2025, before touring the UK
