April 27 - May 14, 2006
To Kill A Mockingbird

Reviewed May 3
Running time 2:10 - one intermission
An inspiring look at integrity in the face of bigotry
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Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel became a well remembered movie starring Gregory Peck. Kathi Gollwitzer directs one of two stage versions, the one that uses one of the town ladies as a narrator rather than placing the story in flashback narrated by the grown version of the young girl who is at the center of the story. That story is so simple, so strong and so absorbing that it can make up for many shortcomings in a production. This production has strengths and weaknesses, but, even with the benefit of the story's charm, the strengths only briefly overtake the weaknesses. The trial scenes are the heart of the story and are the most successful of this production, and the performance of Andy Brownstein as the decent man who rises to the challenge of defending a wrongly accused black man is the smoothest and most touching. Too much of what surrounds him, however, fails to come off as believable.

Storyline: In a small southern town during the depression, a true gentleman of a lawyer is called upon to defend a poor black man on a charge of attacking a white woman. Seeing his strength of character as he does what he believes is right, his children learn important lessons.

Harper Lee’s novel won a Pulitzer Prize in the 1960’s and has remained a must read for high schoolers ever since. In adapting the story for the stage, Christopher Sergel wisely keeps the emphasis on the telling of the relatively simple story. Emotions and not events are at the core of the story but the events are intriguing on their own as well as serving as illustrations of human strengths and weakness of character. The accent is on the positive with the lawyer's dignity and integrity held up for veneration while the bigotry and duplicity of the accuser is exposed.

Brownstein's gentle performance is the delight of the evening. He heads a cast of eighteen. Still the small town of Macomb, Alabama, where the 1935 events transpire, seems under populated despite director Kathi Gollwitzer's valiant efforts to stretch her resources. She has entrances and exits being made from the doors in front of the playing area as well as from behind set pieces and sounds are heard from off-stage. Jean Miller is smooth as the narrating neighbor, but the placement of the narration duties in the hands of a neighbor instead of a grown version of the daughter weakens the story. That daughter is played by Mollie Clement who has proven her ability to do better work than she does here. None of the three youngsters in the cast shake off the appearance of being actors playing a part. Among the adults are John Collins, smooth as the judge in the trial scenes, Seth Alcorn, properly hateful as the accuser, and Ali Miller is properly explosive as his daughter.

Miller also handled set designer duties and she came up with a distinctive approach to the design for the rather cramped space of Theatre on the Run. Her set pieces are all in black with simple white outlines of a porch rail, a roof line or a tree limb. This makes the basic set elegantly simple for scenes played out in the yard of the home of the lawyer and his children, but keeps it from competing for attention when the trial sequences are acted out down front. Theatre on the Run is a low ceilinged space, so the balcony of the courthouse to which the children and the blacks are relegated is actually off to the side of the stage. Nothing, however, compensates for the echoey nature of the space, so some of dialogue, especially that of Sean McCoy as the third child, gets swallowed in reverberation.

Written by Christopher Sergel based on the novel by Harper Lee. Directed by Kathi Gollwitzer. Design: Ali Miller (set) Kathi Gollwitzer (costumes) Robbie Hayes (lights) Christopher Rothgeb (sound) Robb Hunter S.A.F.D. (fight direction) Ray Gniewek (photography) Elisabeth Maddrell (stage manager). Cast: Seth Alcorn, Nora Bauer, Andy Brownstein, Mollie Clement, Charles Clyburn, John Collins, Anna Laura Grant, Lauren Antonia Griffin, Robert R. Heinly, Christopher C. Holbert, Mitch Irzinski, Dustin Loomis, Sean McCoy, Ali Miller, Jean Miller, AliceAnna Schumacher, Nancy Schneiderman, Max Silver.