Reviewed by James Karas
Harper Lee’s 1960 novel, To
Kill A Mockingbird, has become a classic of American literature. Its
sensitive treatment of growing up in Alabama in the 1930s is full of wonder,
discovery and humour. Its treatment of the disease of racism and the fate of a
black man accused of raping a white girl is harrowing to the core and utterly
unforgettable.
The novel was adapted for the
screen by Horton Foote and the 1962 film directed by Robert Mulligan and
starring Gregory Peck is considered one of the great movies of the 20th
century.
Jonathan Goad (centre) as Atticus Finch with members of the
company. Photography by David Hou.
In 1990 the novel was adapted for
the stage by Christopher Sergel and the Stratford Festival has staged his
adaptation at the Festival Theatre. Subject to one complaint, this is a compelling
production of a novel-turned-into-a-play that is almost completely successful.
Director Nigel Shawn Williams has
assembled a superb cast to tell Lee’s great story. Jonathan Goad plays Atticus
Finch, a decent small-town lawyer, a genial man, a sensitive father and in the
end a truly brave defender of a black man before a jury of bigots and in the
face of the Ku Klux Klan.
Finch is a widower with two
children to raise, Scout (Clara Poppy Kushnir) and Jem (Jacob Skiba). They have
a friend Dill (Hunter Smalley) and Williams has the issue of dealing with three
youngsters on stage. He deals with them as with the rest of the production with
expertise. Kushnir is superb as the intelligent, curious and very active Scout
and Skiba and Hunter are both foils and partners in her activities.
The children develop a fear of and
a prejudice against a neighbour that they call Boo Radley (Rylan Wilkie). The
plot strand is illustrative of the danger of bigotry and a story of growing up
and learning.
The main plot strand is the
accusation of Tom Robinson (Matthew G. Brown) of raping Mayella Ewell (Jonelle Gunderson).
He is black; she is white and his guilt is presumed. Some of the most dramatic
scenes in and out of the courtroom ensue as Robinson is put on trial. Randy
Hughson gives a stunning performance as Bob Ewell, Mayella’s ignorant and vicious
father.
Tim Campbell is an impressive
sheriff and Joseph Ziegler is the folksy but tough Judge Taylor.
in To Kill a Mockingbird. Photography by
David Hou.
Even if you know the plot, the
production provides riveting drama as the trial proceeds from the examination
of witnesses to our view of the ignorance, evil and bigotry of most of the
townspeople. The apogee is reached when Atticus sits in front of the jail door at
night and the townspeople come dressed in Ku Klux Klan hoods ready to lynch
Robinson. It is a frightful and unforgettable scene.
Sergel’s dramatization is excellent
in capturing the drama, humour, atmosphere and the social structure of the
town. But he decided to add a character to the play that provides nothing but annoyance.
The play opens and closes with a woman called Jean Louise Finch and we see her
throughout. She is a grown up Scout in 1968 and she looks back at the events of
her youth in the 1930’s. Jean Louise (Irene Poole) almost never leaves the
stage and quickly becomes a fly in the ointment. She sits at the counsel table
and on the witness chair when there is no witness there and is basically and
annoyingly everywhere.
We are also shown photos of Martin
Luther King Jr. and hear his sonorous voice from speeches that he made in the
late 1960s that have nothing to do with the novel which was written in 1960. We
could have done without her and without the additions.
Aside from that the production
provides another opportunity to visit a great novel that Stratford’s production
renders into unforgettable theatre.
______
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee,
dramatized by Christopher Sergel, opened on June 2 and will run in repertory
until November 4, 2018 at the Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca
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