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Classic brought to glorious life
Daniel Betts as lawyer Atticus Finch with Victoria Bewick as Mayella Ewell, Tom Robinson's accuser, sitting behind. Pictures: Johan Persson To Kill a Mockingbird
The New Alexandra Theatre
***** EVERY so often there comes along a
production which is a sheer joy to watch for its invention, its
wonderful acting and its outstanding quality and this is just such a
creation. It opens with the cast
flooding down the aisles, but instead of launching into a play it opens
with the cast of 16 in a reading of Harper Lee’s celebrated book of
racial, and a few other prejudices in the small fictional town
Maycomb, Alabama, in the deep
south of America. Lee grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, where her
father was a lawyer who had defended two black men accused of murder –
both were hanged. The book is set between 1933 and 1935, three
years when 57 back people, out of 61, had been lynched in the USA,
mostly in the southern states. It was a time when any black man or woman
accused of a crime by a white person was usually found guilty, no matter
what the evidence. And it is into that world that attorney Atticus
Finch takes on the case of Tom Robinson, a black field hand accused of
rape. Finch, sensitively played by Daniel Betts, is the
voice of reason in the town, who believes in always looking at every
problem from the other person’s point of view as well as his own. It is a philosophy he instils in his two
children, Scout, played by Rosie Boore and Jem, Billy Price, who are
joined by friend Dill, played by Milo Panni. The trio of youngsters are one of three teams
playing the roles, and were just magnificent, particularly young Miss Acting is a hard profession, 85 per cent of its members are out of work at any one time, but the trio have placed a talented foot on the ladder and only time, and luck, will see how far they climb. Keeping the children in line is the maid
Calpurnia, played in bustling style by Susan Lawson-Reynolds while the
accused is Tom Robinson, played in the servile, hunted way of a man
fearing for his life, by Zackary Momoh. Eighty years after the abolition
of slavery Tom is still enslaved by prejudice and poverty.
His accuser is Mayella Ewell, played witch a
vacant look and equally vacant mind by Victoria Bewick. Mayella is 19, with no schooling, or indeed
anything much else to speak of. The eldest of eight children, and not
one of nature’s gifted intellectuals, she is under the thumb, or perhaps
more accurately, the fist of her town drunk of a father Bob, played with
a mix of menace, racial hatred and stupidity by Ryan Pope. The Ewells, are bottom of the pile socially and
economically in the town, so the black community down the road are the
only people around they can look down upon. But despite the rock bottom reputation of the
Ewells they are white folks and the alleged rapist is black, so,
whatever the evidence, Atticus Finch knows from the start he is on a
loser, but fights on because he believes it is the right thing to do. To
atticus all men are equal when it came to a court of law. It was a position that made his character,
fictional though it was, a beacon for the civil rights movement and
indeed the more idealistic end of the legal profession. His only supporters appear to be neighbour Maudie,
Natalie Gradie along with the Sherriff, Heck Tate, played by Jamie
Kennan and Judge Taylor, played by Christopher Saul. The cast of 16 , who sit at the sides of the
stage, appear as various characters, or walk on clutching the novel to
give us readings to move the plot along as we go through an attempted
lynching and follow the parallel tale of Boo Radley, played by
Christoper Akrill, who has been hidden away in his home for years after
some mysterious legal trouble in the past that no one talks about –
another form of prejudice explored in the play. Through it all we have some fine atmospheric
music composed, played and sung by Phil King on guitar, harmonica and
ukulele – he has a couple of CDs which are worth looking out for. The acting is only part of this production
though. Jon Bausor’s setting of a three sided box surrounded by rusting
corrugated panels, which changed colour, part of Oliver Fenwick’s
lighting design, added atmosphere, setting the scene for a run down town
– the cast even have to chalk in the location of houses in the town on
the floor at the start, something lost a little in the stalls. Director Timothy Sheader has taken Christopher
Sergel’s 1990 stage adaptation and turned it into an easy to follow
piece of theatre that breaks convention and mixes readings and dramatic
scenes with a tremendous effect. The courtroom scene is both sad and poignant as
Atticus makes his plea for justice, for reason and for humanity on
behalf of a black man to the unseen jury, who sit beyond the stage,
somewhere above the audience. It all falls on deaf ears. The play is funny, sad and immensely moving.
There are no TV soap stars, no big names, no flashy special effects or
big budget sets. The story is the star, as it should be, and the superb
cast tell it quite beautifully with accents that never falter – this is
quite simply theatre of the highest quality. To 29-11-14 Roger Clarke 25-11-14
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Boore, making her professional debut.