To Kill a Mockingbird review
Theatre Royal, York
The Touring Consortium was established in 1996 to produce curriculum-based drama, during which period it has presented To Kill a Mockingbird no less than three times. Though providing quality productions for students is a valuable service, such recurrence makes you wonder about the virtue of syllabuses leading theatre by the nose.
It is not difficult to understand why Harper Lee's novel is as often studied as read. It is a work in which all the moral absolutes are clearly signposted and nothing happens without its thematic significance being debated at length.
Damian Cruden's production works hard to overcome the constraints of set-text theatre, yet is saddled with Christopher Sergel's tired, 40-year-old adaptation, which seeks to replicate Lee's elusive, authorial voice by shadowing the young heroine, Scout (Grace Rowe), with the spectre of her older self (Jacqueline Wood). The pair share a fruitful dialogue in initial scenes, but the older woman becomes increasingly redundant and distracting.
There's much to admire about Christopher Madin's bluesy score and Liam Doona's bleached, clapboard set looks handsome while drawing attention to the rickety, wooden structure of the piece. To his credit, Cruden makes the air seem sour and sticky with oppression, and there is sterling work from Duncan Preston, whose Atticus faces the uphill task of making a dramatic virtue of decency. Yet overall, it's a production that reflects the characteristics of the hero: admirable, unimpeachable and just alittle bit pious.
Rating: 3/5
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