Review – To Kill a Mockingbird (UK Tour) – Empire Theatre, Liverpool

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a rare phenomenon – a single book that was its author’s almost entire output, and almost immediately entered the canon of Great American Novels.

Aaron Sorkin’s 2018 stage adaptation, sure-handedly directed by Bartlett Sher, has performed an equally rare feat in becoming another instant classic, taking first Broadway and then the West End by storm and now reaching the close of a UK tour, prior to a second West End run this summer.

Set in the Deep South of America during the Depression, it tells a story of racial prejudice, class divides and the domestic abuse of a young woman, seen through the eyes of children. Lawyer Atticus Finch defends Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly accused of raping a young white woman Mayella Ewing, who is clearly the victim of her alcoholic father Bob. All of this is observed by Atticus’ daughter Jean Louise, nicknamed Scout, her older brother Jem and their friend Dill, who see both the injustice to Tom and the abuse that her father takes from the townsfolk for defending him. Meanwhile, the children try to learn more about Boo Radley, the reclusive neighbour about whom scary rumours abound.

The narrative of the novel is entirely recounted by Scout, but in Sorkin’s masterful stage adaptation the narration is shared between her, Jem and Dill. Anna Munden, Gabriel Scott and Dylan Malyn are adult actors cast in these roles, but succeed magically in getting the characterisations absolutely believable for the children’s ages. All three deliver beautiful performances, but Malyn perhaps takes the prize for his stunning performance as the shy, socially awkward Dill.

Patrick O’Kane is Atticus, and never once has need to worry about the great shadow still cast by Gregory Peck’s legendary 1962 screen interpretation. He plays the lawyer with a fine balance of steely resolve and desperate sadness, and shows why this character has become an emblem for social and moral justice. Aaron Shosanya is restrained and dignified as the unjustly accused Tom, who does not have the use of his left arm due to an accident that we learn of during the trial, but is nonetheless believed capable of grabbing a young woman with both hands.

Other standout performances in the large cast come from Oscar Pearce as the monstrous figure of Bob Ewell, Evie Hargreaves as his terrified daughter Mayella, Stephen Boxer as the weary Judge Taylor, who tries in vain to see justice done, and Richard Dempsey, who is like a terrier with a bone as prosecuting lawyer Horace Gilmer.

The stage set by Miriam Buether is splendidly naturalistic, and cleverly allows for transformations between both the stoop and interior of the Finch household, the courtroom, and all the other locations required by the plot.

Indictive of the keen eye that Sher has for pacing and energy is that the play, which has a run time just ten minutes shy of three hours, appears to fly past, and even though dialogue is allowed its time to breathe, there is never any let up in the dramatic flow.

For a story that was written in 1960 and set almost a century ago, what is most striking is how it feels not just as relevant as ever but even moreso, and it is impossible not to think of recent scenes from the news, both across the Atlantic and on our own shores. The biggest takeaway from this miraculous production seems to be that, if a community becomes steeped in bigotry and racial hatred, its people, even when presented with the blindingly obvious, choose to believe the impossible and the ridiculous.

This may well be a story that so many of us are familiar with from schooldays, but there can never have been a more apt moment to re-tell it on the stage than now, and it is heartening to see the Empire packing in near-capacity audiences all week to see it.

To Kill a Mockingbird is at Liverpool Empire until 16th May after which it ends its tour in Milton Keynes next week before a 12 week run at Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End commencing 25th June.

Star rating: 5 stars

Production Photography by John Persson 

Patrick O’Kane as Atticus Finch

Dylan Malyn, Anna Munden and Gabriel Scott as Dill, Scout and Jem

Oscar Pearce as Bob Ewell and Patrick O’Kane as Atticus

 

This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool