To Kill a Mockingbird at the Theatre Royal Nottingham
Director Damian Cruden is touring with Christopher Sergel’s 1970 stage version of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird which is 51 years old.
The book’s popularity as a set text ensures full houses, but I wonder no-one has adapted it since. It’s full of unmined possibilities which Sergel skates over, particularly in relation to the stories of Boo Radley and Mrs Dubose.
Graeme Dalling’s unnecessarily camp Dill raised some short-lived sniggers; otherwise there was hardly a rustle or a murmur throughout. Matthew Pattimore and Grace Rowe did well enough as Jem and Scout though Pattimore’s accent wandered and, for me, Rowe’s efforts were somewhat cramped by the physical presence of her adult self – a clumsy feature of the adaptation.
Court scenes generally dramatise well and, in a patchy evening, this was the highlight. The adult Scout stood silent, allowing us to relish strong performances from Duncan Preston, Cornelius Macarthy and Mark Ewell as Atticus, Tom Robinson and Bob Ewell respectively.
Liam Doona’s set used a series of sliding picket fences and clapboard flats to create the interiors and exteriors of Lee’s fictional Alabama town. Sometimes these partially or wholly obscured our view of the characters effectively suggesting Scout’s limited point of view. Less successful was the use of intermittent back projection of various scenes). Was it an attempt to appeal to a young audience? Either way, like much of this production, it didn’t work for me. But I was in the minority: the curtain fell to enthusiastic applause.
IMAGE: Duncan Preston as Atticus Finch