Review: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at Wyndham’s Theatre

The first thing to note is that the narrative arc is the one already known to millions and focuses majorly on the second half of the novel. During the Great Depression at the small Alabama town of Maycomb, a hard-working and honest, black family man Tom Robinson (Aaron Shosanya) is accused of raping a young white woman Mayella (Evie Hargreaves), daughter to an aggressive serial drunk Bob Ewell (Oscar Pearce). Despite Finch’s best efforts to present overwhelming evidence to prove Tom is innocent and the guidance of a sympathetic judge (Stephen Boxer), the jury of white folks convict Robinson after he states under oath that the reason he acceded to Mayella’s near-daily requests to carry-out unpaid chores, was that he felt sorry for her. The unpalatability of a black man’s sympathy for a white woman’s situation, ultimately ensures his conviction of an unproven capital offence.

Orbiting Atticus and learning through his example how to grow-up fair minded and kind, are daughter Scout (Anna Munden) who serves as primary narrator and son Jem (Gabriel Scott). They are joined in the summer months by a nervous but ebullient cousin Dill Harris (Dylan Malyn) who due to absentee parenting is on the spectrum and conjures a fantasy version of the father he has never known.

Rather than presenting the court case as a single scene, the set constantly flits between Finch’s porch on which he gathers his thoughts, and converses with among others his stalwart housekeeper Calpurnia (an excellently underplayed turn from Andrea Levy) and the courthouse with its witness dock centre stage. Key to the prosecution’s efforts to discredit the accused is Horace Gilmer’s (Richard Dempsey) belligerent and disrespectful goading of Tom, whom he repeatedly addresses as “Boy”.

The entire piece serves as a reflection on the bitter divide between the victorious North and the defeated Southern states and the lingering resentment over the abolition of slavery which had meant free labour and landowner status for many whites. In the age of #BlackLivesMatter TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD still serves as a salutary reminder of the wrongs of the past and how much further things need to improve if the American dream of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” is to have meaning for ALL its citizens.

The production continues at Wyndham’s Theatre until 12th September and has a running time just shy of 3 hours including the interval.

To Kill A Mockingbird Tickets