Who knew “To Kill a Mockingbird” was a comedy? In Aaron Sorkin’s 2018 Broadway-acclaimed (and controversial) adaptation of Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, now in San Diego on nationwide tour, there have been as many laughs as gasps on the Civic Theatre.
However the gasps did come. The story nonetheless packs a wallop.
This new incarnation modifications the shape and the order of occasions. The trial of Tom Robinson, a Black man accused of raping a younger white girl, is the centerpiece. It begins the proceedings, and we preserve coming again to it, interspersed with different scenes and backstories.
The time is 1934, the Jim Crow period in Maycomb, Alabama. The Klan was distinguished on the town; a lot of the white of us had hoods. They demanded that the Blacks be subservient.
Apart from Atticus Finch (who could be, on this model, a tad condescending himself). However he’s the upstanding lawyer who reluctantly takes on the case.
Not like the e book, and the 1991 play by Christopher Sergel, Atticus’s daughter, Scout (energetic Melanie Moore) shouldn’t be the centerpiece or sole narrator. This Scout shares the narrative duties together with her brother, Jem (pleasant Justin Mark) and their new just-for-the-summer good friend, Dill (amusing Steven Lee Johnson).
On this model, everybody learns one thing by the tip. Not solely the children get a bucketload of data and expertise regarding justice and racial pressure on the town.
The accused, Tom Robinson (forceful, compelling Yaegel T. Welch) is aware of what he ought to and shouldn’t say to white folks, however when he’s on the stand, irrespective of how a lot Atticus has coached him, he can’t assist himself. The reality will out.
Atticus has all the time been an exemplar of decency and morality, a principled idealist and sort, clever avatar of (single) Fatherhood, indelibly created by Gregory Peck within the 1962 film. Right here, he, too, will get a little bit of education, and slightly comeuppance — from the household’s three-generation Black housekeeper and surrogate mom, Calpurnia (excellent Jacqueline Williams).
Calpurnia has a way more influential position on this model, fearlessly presenting the Black perspective on the goings on. She disabuses Atticus of his Pollyanna outlook that “There’s elementary good in everybody” and along with his kids, shines a lightweight on his weak point and meekness (his son even calls him a coward at one level).
Harper Lee by no means printed one other e book after this one. However a long-lost novel not too long ago surfaced and was printed in 2015. “Go Set a Watchman” was initially described as a sequel to “Mockingbird,” however is now accepted to be a primary draft, written three years earlier.
The publication obtained tepid to destructive evaluations and prompted a flurry of shock and dismay over the truth that Atticus is portrayed as a racist, who as soon as attended a Klan assembly and says issues like “The Negroes down listed here are nonetheless of their childhood as a folks.”
These components don’t make it into Sorkin’s conception of Atticus, however he does deliver the fictional lawyer down just a few pegs. In the end, that is Atticus’s story greater than Scout’s, which alters your entire focus of the supply materials.
Sorkin does embody the story of the much-feared however misjudged Boo Radley (a type of zomboid Travis Johns). And, in a scrumptious addition, Mary Badham, who portrays one other neighbor, imply and nasty previous Mrs. Henry Dubose, performed Scout within the movie when she was 10 years previous. At the moment, she was the youngest particular person ever to obtain a Supporting Position Academy Award nomination. Since then, she’s been an envoy of the social justice message of the e book and movie. A nifty little bit of casting.
With regards to casting, Richard Thomas, as Atticus, had enormous footwear to fill. Everybody remembers Gregory Peck within the position. However Thomas additionally follows Jeff Daniels, who originated the position on Broadway and earned a Tony nomination. (I even have a really robust private/native reminiscence of the great, not too long ago departed David Cochran Heath, who was magnificent as Atticus at Lamb’s Gamers Theatre in 1992; and his efficiency was heightened by having his 9 year-old daughter, Carrie, play Scout).
Thomas begins out bellowing his strains. That’s not the soft-spoken, genteel Atticus we anticipate. However he will get there finally. And this Atticus additionally reveals a possible for anger and frustration, culminating in a collapse into disillusionment.
The touring manufacturing, directed by former San Diegan Bartlett Sher, is massive (with a solid of 24) and lavish, with stunning fluid scenic design (Miriam Buether) and lighting (Jennifer Tipton). But it surely’s means too lengthy, drags at instances and takes some time to make its (necessary, modern) factors.
The solid is sort of robust, and the characters are nicely outlined. However the Southern accents are all around the map. Moore’s is most noticeable, both over-articulated or oddly dropped. And the very important dialect distinctions that demarcate the courses and races are lacking.
What Sorkin does make plain is the notion of Southern justice, on each side of race points. Right here, it appears to be meted out not a lot by the rule of regulation, however by groupthink (mobs, lynching) or private/political expedience (the sheriff, choose and Atticus determine the reason for dying of the heinous, drunk abuser/rapist Bob Ewell — father of Mayella, the supposed rape sufferer. Joey Collins and Arianna Gayle Stucki are each first-rate).
What’s most annoying, in fact, is how related all that is, practically 100 years after the fictional occasions and nearly 60 years after the Civil Rights Act was put in place. Racism and white supremacist beliefs are distressingly ascendant lately, although they’re offset, to some extent, by the Black Lives Matter motion. We had made some progress, however we’ve tragically regressed. Once more.
Regardless of the not-always-successful modifications to the unique novel, and the makes use of of racially charged phrases, this can be a good household present: instructive for everybody. What’s depicted right here, and what could be discovered and mentioned, is invaluable — for college kids and oldsters alike.
- “To Kill A Mockingbird,” the nationwide tourbrought to us by Broadway San Diego, runs by way of Dec. 4 on the Civic Theatre, third and B streets in downtown San Diego
- Remaining performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 6:30pm, with matinees Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
- Working Time: 3 hours
- Tickets ($49 – $94) are at broadwaySD.com
- COVID Protocol: Masks are beneficial. There’s additionally a safety verify that slows down your entry-time. Put together to attend in line.
Pat Launer, a member of the American Theatre Critics Affiliation, is a long-time San Diego arts author and an Emmy Award-winning theater critic. An archive of her previews and evaluations could be discovered at patlauner.com.
