To Kill a Mockingbird at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh*****

Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning To KIll a Mockingbird is said to be the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and since its publication in 1960 it has become a classic of modern American literature. But Academy Award and Emmy-winning screenwriter, director and playwright Aaron Sorkin’s stage adaptation is set to become just as famous. Now the highest grossing American play in Broadway history, and after two years in London’s West End, it has embarked on an extensive tour, taking with it some of its original cast members.

And what a privilege it is to have witnessed such a powerful piece of theatre.

Skillfully written and superbly acted, it runs the whole gamut of emotions, dealing with rape and racial inequality, drunkeness, abuse and death, while managing to infuse warmth and humour throughout.

It revolves around the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly accused of raping a 19-year-old girl. In America’s Deep South state of Alabama, Robinson barely has a chance of acquittal, even though he is defended by Atticus Finch, a  lawyer whose integrity has become legendary.

The trial appears at the end of the book, but in Sorkin’s adaptation it is centre stage, with actors deftly moving around big (and smoothly operating) pieces of scenery to create flashbacks.

The whole production is held together by Scout, Finch’s daughter, who acts as narrator together with her not so prominent brother Jem. Anna Munden, reprising her West End role, is magnificent as the tomboy whose plain speaking has us both laughing and empathising, while Gabriel Scott as Jem portrays perfectly a young man growing into his responsibilities.There is a third narrator, however.  And Dylan Malyn steals every scene as Scout and Jem’s best friend, Dill, an awkward, goofy unloved boy who really pulls at the heart strings when we’re not laughing out loud at his antics. Malyn’s performance is all the more special because this production marks his professional stage debut, so he’s obviously one to watch in the future!

There are good, meaty roles for so many people in this production, not least Oscar Pearce’s frighteningly realistic performance as the violent Bob Ewell, Tom Robinson’s accuser.

But star billing goes to Atticus Finch, and I feel it said a lot that no-one commented on the fact that it was the understudy John J O’Hagan who was making his debut as Finch, Richard Coyle being laid up in London with a bug. O’Hagan gave an exemplary performance, making the character his own, and I don’t think anyone left the theatre last night feeling they had been short changed.

Image: Johan Persson

To Kill a Mockingbird is at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh until Oct 25.

capitaltheatres.com 

It then continues to tour:

Oct 28-Nov 1: Leicester Curve

Nov 4-8: Glasgow King’s Theatre

Nov 11-22: Bath Theatre Royal

Nov 25-29: Cardiff Wales Millennium Centre

Dec 2-6: Eastbourne Congress Theatre

Jan 13-24: Salford Lowry

Jan 27-Feb 7: Sheffield Lyceum

Feb 10-21: Dublin Bord Gais

Feb 24-Mar 7: Belfast Grand Opera House

Mar 10-14: Plymouth Theatre Royal

Mar 17-21: Canterbury Marlowe Theatre

Mar 24-28: Southampton Mayflower Theatre

Apr 14-18: Birmingham Hippodrome

Apr 21-25: Newcastle Theatre Royal

Apr 28-May 2: Norwich Theatre Royal

May 12-16: Liverpool Empire Theatre

May 19-23: Milton Keynes Theatre