Theatre / Reviews
Review: To Kill a Mockingbird, Theatre Royal Bath – ‘Richard Coyle delivers the performance of a lifetime’
This review demands big content warnings. If you’re not familiar with the book, it’s about the Deep South trial of an innocent black man for the alleged rape of a white teenager who has been abused by her father. There are very explicit racial slurs – which are challenged – throughout. As the book’s author Harper Lee and playwright Aaron Sorkin intend, it is an uncomfortable watch.
This review nearly didn’t happen; at our press night, set difficulties meant the show was cancelled after 30 minutes. I’m very glad we could bring you this review; it is an important story, very well told.
Sorkin’s scripts (The West Wing, A Few Good Men, The Social Network) are known for their wordiness. I’m not sure this trait is a complete success – there’s a lot of narration – but let’s move on, because there’s plenty of great things to impart.
Oscar Pearce (Bob Ewell)
Richard Coyle is our Atticus Finch. He delivers the performance of a lifetime. He’s compelling, absorbing, and magnetically watchable. There’s a big cast around him – most notably his children, who tell the story in the book: Scout (Anna Munden) and Jem (Gabriel Scott), and their friend that summer, Dill (the superb Dylan Mayln).
The other adults’ parts, on the whole, are more signifiers than people, but are all excellently played, especially cotton farmer Link Deas, who married a black woman, but who lost her and their young son to racists in the healthcare system.
Aaron Shosanya (Tom Robinson)
This is a play about racism, and it’s an adaptation which could have done more. The black characters have almost no voice, and while Sorkin was being true to the novel, adaptations have licence and opportunities – which were not taken.
The staging could have addressed the novel’s lack of black voice if the script didn’t, but in the court room scenes, half the auditorium misses the black community’s presence, because of their positioning. Only two black voices are heard: the innocent accused, Tom Robinson – spellbindingly brought to life by Aaron Sosanya – and the Finch’s maid, Calpurnia, played powerfully by Andrea Davy. I wish Sorkin and director Bartlett Sher had given them and the black population of Maycombe, Alabama more prominence.
To Kill a Mockingbird cast
The set is impressive (and its complications led to press night’s cancellation last week). Kudos to the abilities of set designer Miriam Buether and the on-site tech team for the immersive world they create.
The play asks us whether good citizens should serve the law or serve justice. It shows the harm done by relatively privileged people’s prejudice and rumour and what happens when the desperate poor’s compassion is replaced with “battery acid”, when they seek scapegoats. And that this is not inevitable.
Oscar Pearce (Bob Ewell) Richard Coyle (Atticus Finch)
Clearly, ‘Mockingbird’ has immense relevance for us today; Sorkin underscores Harper Lee’s original message: good people must speak up, and be heard. They must remember: you are not alone, and allyship is essential. Finch, his family and his good neighbours are not wealthy, but they have relative privilege. For good to come about, they must stand against the loud voices of hate, and use it.
Last night in the auditorium, I heard tears. And as we poured into the street, I heard nothing but awe.
To Kill a Mockingbird is at Theatre Royal Bath on November 11-22 at 7.30pm, with additional 2.30pm matinee shows on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday (no shows Monday and Tuesday). Tickets are available at www.theatreroyal.org.uk.
All photos: Johan Persson
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