Words by Melissa Blease | Production photos Johan Persson
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Southern gothic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, first published in 1960 and largely focusing on the trial of a Black man accused of raping a white woman in 1930s Alabama, is a perennial classic of modern American literature. Despite topping the most frequently banned books in the USA charts, the book has been continuously in print since publication, with between 750,000 and 1 million copies sold each year adding to the total tally of over 45 million sales worldwide to date.
American film director, playwright and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s highly-acclaimed retelling of the book for theatre audiences, which premiered on Broadway in 2018 and transferred to London’s West End in 2022, ostensibly represents a solid retelling of Lee’s original courtroom drama.
But in subtly shifting the focus away from the courtroom scenes in favour of allowing audiences the time to get to know the personalities, motivations and influences of the main characters involved, we’re confronted with multiple fresh layers of purpose, themes and plot-pivots to consider, resulting in a gripping deep dive into questions around ethics, virtue and morality that are as relevant today as they were when the book was first published.
If our future lies in the hands of our children, I’d trust defence lawyer Atticus Finch’s daughter Scout. who ages from around six to nine years old during the course of Sorkin’s production, to lead the way.
Heading up a trio of cohorts that act as Greek chorus-style tour guides throughout our journey in flashbacks and fragments, Anna Munden maintains a terrific pace: smart, funny and continuously vigilant, she keeps both her circumspect, headstrong older brother Jem (Gabriel Scott) and their utterly delightful friend (if your heart isn’t immediately captivated by Dylan Malyn’s Dill, you simply haven’t got one) in check with tenderness, humour and a wisdom way beyond her years.
Image: Anna Munden (Scout Finch) in To Kill A Mockingbird
That wisdom is directly passed down from Scout and Jem’s widowed father. Intellect, perspicacity, grief, frustration, doubt, tenderness, compassion and tolerance… and still, plenty of room for playfulness in the mix: Richard Coyle (reprising his West End role for the UK tour) is the multi-faceted Atticus that I believe Lee intended him to be — and the graciously self-restrained yet powerful role model that all young people need; a stunning performance indeed.
As Tom Robinson (the accused), Aaron Shosanya is a cowed, despondent poster boy for life as a disenfranchised Black man living in America in the Jim Crow era, vulnerable to the very real possibility of being skinned alive by those who take ‘justice’ into their own hands… such as, the sickeningly loathsome Ewells: the damaged, subordinated Mayella (Evie Hargreaves, the accuser) and her vulgar, bullying, barbarian father Bob (Oscar Pearce). As Tom’s palpable whispers of misery never turn into the screams that the audience no doubt experience internally, Sorkin — in one of a handful of intelligent modifications to the book’s original text —allows the Finch family’s housekeeper Calpurnia (Andrea Davy) to give voice to the Black characters, calling out what she sees as Atticus’s weaknesses, hypocrisies and emotional manacles in strong but few words and even the slightest shrug of her shoulders at key moments.
In terms of the production values overall, Sorkin’s taut, fast-paced script is the star of the show, working in tandem with Bartlett Sher’s unpretentious direction to allow the full weight of the storyline to be dropped without distraction while Miriam Buether’s sets seamlessly move us from the Finch’s porch to a grand courtroom without tangible interruption.
Race, class and gender; prejudice, morality and inequality; the strengths and weaknesses of expressing dignity and compassion for others: there are a lot of questions raised and reactions to unpack here. Sorkin’s To Kill A Mockingbird is not merely a time capsule offering us a glimpse into smalltown America almost 7 decades ago; it is, all told — and tragically — an essential, portentous play for today. All rise? It’s time we did.
To Kill a Mockingbird is on at TRB until 22 November
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