A mob is where a person goes to give their conscience a break

The latest in an occasional series of play reviews...

To Kill A Mockingbird : The Gielgud Theatre

This has been playing at the Gielgud for most of the year and has received excellent reviews, so there was only so long I could ignore the "tickets available for only £X" emails I was getting on a weekly basis - but given that I'd read and enjoyed the book donkey's years ago and I generally like Aaron Sorkin's tricksy dialogue, so I didn't exactly take too much convincing.

Settling in to my seat up in the gods, the visible set certainly wasn't giving me any clues as to what I was about to get.  

So I was intrigued as to what I was going to get as the lights went down and the wall rises - oh.  Four columns on the stage and that's it - I struggle to imagine we're in for some stark minimalism though.

What follows in terms of the play is faithful to the book as much as I remember it, but is quite clever with the timelines, particularly in the first half where it interweaves the action from before and during the central trial well, using the child narrators creatively.  The second half follows a more conventional path focussing on Atticus's closing statement and the consequences of the verdict.  I don't really need to describe it any more than that because the less you know, you better - but it's a clever adaptation (although you might expect snappier dialogue from Aaron).

The play features a surprisingly large cast (20+) but we have to start with Atticus Finch played by Richard Coyle (who I remember from Coupling which was a mere 20 years ago now!) and he does a good job.  The role is written as surprisingly low key and one note in the first half, but the second half gives him the chance to do some serious acting and display greater depth and he takes the opportunity well.  I imagine Rafe Spall who originally took the part also did a good job and Jeff Bridges currently has the role on Broadway - hard to imagine he doesn't nail it.

Atticus is ably supported by all around him - firstly by Scout, Jem and Dill, the "kids" of the play.  Gwyneth Keyworth is the pick of the bunch for me as Scout - bringing a good mix of innocence, indignation and inquisitiveness to the role (I recognised her from somewhere but had to look it up to be reminded she was in "Hidden" - which is well worth a watch if you've not caught it).  David Moorst also stands out as Dill, playing the laughs well and there's no denying Harry Redding does his best as Jem, but the role didn't feel quite so fleshed out for me.

Who else warrants a mention?  Pamela Nomvete as Calpurnia and Jude Owusu as Tom Robinson get the nod from me, both presenting different sides of the non-white experience and Harry Atwell as Bob Ewell presents a slightly more US Southern white persona - it's a bit of a shouty, racist stereotype role but he plays it well.  I'm also going to call out two non-acting roles - Candida Caldicot and Ciyo Brown who provide the accompanying music on organ and guitar and it works really well.

Funnily enough, the set does not stay minimalist for long - it's cleverly designed including raised, lowered and wheeled sections to represent the required locations.  Which was mostly effective but moving the scenery was distractingly noisy at times whilst there was ongoing dialogue - it feels like that would have been an easy thing to fix (by just waiting for a bit) so I did find that annoying.  What was far more annoying was the operation of the spotlight - whoever was on point last night just wasn't up to the job unfortunately.  Maybe it looked worse for me because of my lofty elevation - but I feel like I'm being overly generous here.

I'd not been to the Gielgud before - I quite liked it.  It's been there since 1906 but it feels pretty up-to-date - it was maybe a little warm last night (which was somewhat surprising for the end of October) but I had a good view from the back row.  Maybe some of the side seats had a slightly impeded view, but they all looked pretty good to me.

One warning about the play, there is frequent use of the N word - personally I have no problems with it being used in a relevant and historically accurate context and I don't think anyone can argue that's the case here.  But, I appreciate that everyone has differing views on the matter, so if you care, then maybe avoid - OK?  I was more annoyed by the Southern US accents - I appreciate that it's "accurate", but I could have lived without them.  The choice to keep things mostly accurate to the book is an interesting one - it feels like story could be updated (by someone much cleverer than me) to the present day or several other timelines and still be depressingly relevant.  My suspicion is that Harper Lee's estate might have some objections to such a move though.

Overall, I'd say this is a "proper" play designed to appeal to the masses and it very much does - there was a very generous amount of applause for all the cast at the end.  "Serious" theatregoers may find the amount of noise (particularly from phones!) annoying, but it wasn't too bad (or I"m not a very serious theatregoer).  I did, however, find the latecomers in the row in front of me annoying - but it was funny when one of them fell asleep and had to be woken up in the second half.  

So it was a "proper" play liked by the masses - but did I like it?  Yes, I did - it was a good adaptation of fine source material, well acted by a talented cast.  Who were badly let down by the spotlight operator, but I'm sure he (or she) was just having an off night, so don't let that put you off.

Marvellous - merely OK
My Neighbour Totoro - just incredible