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For courtroom
drama
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Mockingbird 'effeeti Ve hojmily' ^t Cap Rep
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ByEdMcMullen
° Round one. of Capital Repertory Company's Novels ,on Stage
program featured a stirring
The Grapes of Wrath last
season. Round tojvo offers an
equally engaging production,
To Kill a Mockingbird, which
opened last week.
Skepticism reigned a s this
critic plopped into his seat
Sunday to watch Mockingbird
Just
another
theatrical
tautology of sorts on t h e
emergence of social consciousness and one hardly relevant.
Sure, Harper Lee's 1960 novel
was a portent to the national
Civil Rights movement. Even
so, today's racial divide h a s
become much more complex,
This play a d a p t a t i o n by
Christopher Sergei would' be an
ineffectual homily, at best.
A homily? Yes, Ineffectual?
Hardly. A superbly-paced and
directed piece of drama, Mockingbird offered some of the most
affecting scenes this critic has
seen in live theater. Even the
elaborate
curtain
call,
strikingly original, was a piece
of art, in itself
The play, like Lee's novel,
deals with racial injustice and
a little girl's coming of age as
She watches her father, Atticus
Finch, defend a black m a n
falsely accused of raping a
white woman. The lessons the
girl learns about h e r father's
strength and quiet conviction
come with a price: she's exposed to t h e ugliness and
bigotry of the townspeople who
are revolted that h e r father,
would defend a black "man in
these circumstances
Like the npvel, the play is
composed of the memories of a
grown woman, J e a n Louise,
who recalls a childhood event
'
.. _
.
her life
that teaches h
er
a b o u t both h e r father's
us
chlaracter and the pernicious
;ate of racial affairs in 19355
stajt
Alabama
The play brings^Jean Louis
on stage as an observer and
n a r r a t o r of the events that
registered indelibly on' her as a
child The most interesting
moments in the show come
from watching Jean Louise's
complex reactions as she sees
in
-
Ryan Baum has a strong handle on Dill, capturing the bo^'s
sensitivity and his humorous tendency to exaggerate matters as a coverup for not having attentive parents.
her younger self — nicknamed
Scout — deal with h e r
(emerging awareness
j As played by Kimberly Kay,
JJean
Louise
shows
amusement,
wistfulness,
chagrin,
outrage,
and
compassion. She registers a
genuine s t a r t l e when one
particular
recollection
especially jars her
_ At times, Jean Louise's gest u r e s ' mirror Scout's. Kay
makes this appear to be an
unconscious continuity, rather
than stage aping. No easy task.
Without having a close resemblance at a surface glance,
Kay and Erin Probst, as Scout,
both have a lively luminosity in
t h e i r eyes and resolutely
spunky expressions, which
makes them appear to be the
same person.
When, a t play's end, the two
parts of Jean Louise come together to sing a quick dueti it's
predictably sappy, but touching,
nonetheless. What adult hasn't
wanted a t some time to reach
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i.i. _
~ . . ^ I n u n l o nf /-Jolivfirv
hack and. contact
the'child he or
,-the
various
levels of delivery
9
necessary
to
bring
out ah intershe once was e
s
t
i
n
g
c
h
a
r
a
c
terization
Probst was^ernfic. This child
Griffin's
presence
is
so strong,
brings wonderful ^energy and
Mt's
too
bad
Jhis',
role
wasir*t
curiosity to t h e role Her
larger
interactions 'with her older
When t h e alleged r a p e
brother, Jem, and best friend,
victim,
Mayella Ewes, played by
Dill, look so fresh and spontaJennifer
Johanos, is subjected
neous that she never appea'fcs to
to
A
t
t
i
cus's
courtroom
be giving a performance Probst
scrutiny,
hei
story
comes
is downright delightful as she
apart
It
becomes
obvious
that
insists that she wants to have a
the
accused,
Tom
Robinson
talk with her father When she
climb into Atticus's lap, Probst"
shows a deep affection for her
father, despite questioning
what manner of man he is.
The strongest acting comes
when she and Dill are on stage
alone There's a very believable
connection between t h e s e
youngsters. ' R y a n Sommers
Baoim (see related story) has a
strong
handle
on Dill,
capturing t^ie boy's sensitivity
and his humorous tendency to
exaggerate matters as a coverup for not having attentive
parents.
The flaws in this story lie in
the w a y Atticus a n d h i s
n e m e s i s , Bob Ewell, a r e
presented. Actually, it's the
same flaw: one-dimensional
characterization. [As saintly as
Atticus is, Ewell lis equally his
opposite number in villainy.
Neither makes for a believable
person. If these characters
were presented as struggling
with other traits, then they
would have more depth and dimension.
Bill Christ as Atticus cuts a
towering figure, he looks at
least half a head taller than the
rest of the cast. He sounds as
though he's going for the same
effects t h a t Gregory "Peck displayed in the film i version —
dignified
righteousness
leavened with little doses of
affection. There's a problem
with his stentorian style of
delivery, though. While this
beautifully in h i s
r works
'summation' to t h e jury, it
sounds affected in normal
conversation. Perhaps, Christ
had difficulty modulating his
voice enough to find the nuances in his Southern dialect
He does, however, have some
nice m o m e n t s w i t h t h e
children, such a s when he
teases Jem about the shadows
on Mrs. Dubose's wall or when
he invited Dill to stay with his
family.
„ Local actor Lee Griffin as
Reverend &ykes also has a fiuJil
timbre to his voice, but he finids
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iiirltTo -i a a H o f o n f v
Judge
is ^deceptively kind and
fair-minded magistrate, while
Arbeit's
prosecutor,, Mr
Gilmer, h a s a high time of i<
delivering h i s lines with
wonderful down home verve,
Mockingbird
h a s over 30
p a r t s -— t h e most Capital
Repertory h a s ever p u t on
stage Beyond those alreadymentioned, most of the major
portrayals were very effective,
especially
Marva
Ray's
Calpernia, George Rafferty's
Mr Cunningham, and Nick
Plakias's Sheriff Tate
Rafferty and Probst orchest r a t e d a powerful moment
when C u n n i n g h a m and a
lynch mob show up at the jail to
drag Tom out. Scout pulls
C u n n i n g h a m o u t of mob
mentality by calling attention to
his son, with whom she goes to
school. The guilt mounts on
Cunningham's face and body
By the scene's erid, he wears it
so lieavily that he has no recourse but to call his confederates off. The scene's only drawback was the cackling sounds of
the other would-be lynchers
In a sense, t h e town is on
trial The play recalls Inherit
the Wind, which also deals
with
townspeople
being
challenged to confront longheld beliefs. In both cases, the
townspeople u n d e r g o some
shift, but ultimately not enough
to reverse t h e outcome. In
Inherit,
the! John 1 Scopes
character was found guilty of
(Continued on next page)
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(Kevin C W e s t ) , is t h e
scapegoat for her father's abusiveness Director Henry Fonte
frames the courtroom scenes to
make t h e audience t h e jury
Although t h e scene w a s
stirring, Johanos's constant
wringing of a handkerchief
during her testimony was overdone and amateurish. /
Unfortunately,
Patrick
Turner wasn't able to add
anything to the poorly written
Bob Ewell part except leering
and snarling. One would think
such a reprobate would have
been put put of his misery long
before t|he mysterious Boo
Radley got his mitts on him.
Herbert Wolff and Herman
Arbeit were entertaining as the
judge and prosecutor. Wolffs
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