To Kill a Mockingbird at Stratford – Outstanding Production

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It’s not too late to see To Kill a Mockingbird at Stratford.  Just go!

This year was a slow start for us.  We have left going to Stratford until the end and now, I regret not getting on it sooner.  So far, we have seen The Music Man and To Kill a Mockingbird (one of the best productions I have ever seen at Stratford), and at the end of the month, we will see The Rocky Horror Show.  Our son was lucky enough to catch The Tempest in September.

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Chastising myself for missing out on The Tempest and Coriolanus,  I’ve picked up the line-up for the 2019 Stratford Festival season and have started to plan which plays to go to next year.  There are no excuses not to go, Stratford is located a short one-hour drive from both Toronto and London.  If you love live theatre and you love Shakespeare, you can’t go wrong with the Stratford Festival.

Considered North America’s largest classical repertory theatre company, its bread and butter are all things, Shakespeare.  Through the years we have gone to see Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Much Ado about Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is the main reason you go to To Kill a Mockingbird at Stratford.

It has also become a favourite of musical theatre lovers.  With successes such as Fiddler on the Roof, Crazy for You, 42 Street, A Chorus Line, Guys and Dolls, HMS Pinafore and this year’s The Music Man, these fabulous productions are not to be missed.  I loved The Music Man and was happy to see they had extended the production.  The same can be said for The Rocky Horror Show as it has been extended until December 3rd.

To Kill a Mockingbird at Stratford

We saw To Killed a Mockingbird at Stratford and no word of a lie, it was one of the best productions that I have seen at Stratford.  If you don’t know the story, the play takes place in 1935 in Maycomb, Alabama.  A black man, Tom Robinson, is accused of raping a white woman.  His court-appointed lawyer is Atticus Finch – father to Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch and her older brother Gem. 

The story revolves around the trial and the reaction of the racist town folks who believe all black people are dangerous, good-for-nothings.  Tensions are high and the language of the day is both jarring as it is offensive to our modern sensibilities.  Alas, it remains a story that resonates in these troubling times.

The story is narrated by ‘adult’ Jean Louise (Irene Poole) reflecting back on the tragic events of the trial.  We are mesmerized by Atticus Finch (Jonathan Goad), Calpurnia (Sophia Walker) and even Bob Ewell (Randy Hughson) and his daughter Mayella (Jonelle Gunderson) but not as much as those rivetting children.

My admiration for child actors has grown through the years, and Stratford has no shortage of amazing actors (just have a glance at the cast of singers and dancers in The Music Man which is teaming with them).  There are three child actors in To Kill a Mockingbird but two really stood out for me:  Scout (Clara Poppy Kushnir )and Dill(Hunter Smalley).

In her Stratford Festival debut, Kushnir commanded our attention from the first scene to the last. Eleven-year-old  Kushnir, played Scout as Harper Lee had written her – a precocious, sassy, strong-willed child that called her father by his first name and bossed her buddy, Dill, around. Once I got over the attempt to carry off a southern accent (which was jarring at first), she eased into it (or I got used to it) and the story unfolded.

Zipping from one side of the stage to the next, asking uncomfortable questions of her nanny (“what does rape mean?”) to demand to watch the trail from the balcony with the ‘black folk’ to befriending the town recluse – Boo Radley, she took us along for the ride.

The second outstanding child actor was Hunter Smalley as the runaway Dill, who found refuge in the Finch household, as he was entertaining from the start.   His enthusiastic introduction was both humorous and familiar (if you know any chatty youngsters).  The timing between these two was perfect and their daring banter made for humorous situations.  

You could hardly wait to see what else will come out of their mouths.  My son pointed out that the storyline in the play left out details about this character and by doing so, left something lacking.  My husband thought that there was no Dill character in the movie version with Gregory Peck but that just goes to show you how much less impact that actor had.

In my opinion, I did not see the tension build between the children and Boo Radley (Rylan Wilkie).  I distinctly remember in the book the visceral fear these children felt as they walked by the house or when they were confronted by the older Radley brother.  It made Boo Radley far more foreboding.  It is that tension, that dehumanized Boo and surprises us when he becomes the hero in the end.

To Kill a Mockingbird at Stratford was successful at creating racial tension between the adults (with the addition of a fully-hooded  KKK lynch mob) but lacked that tension between the children and Boo Radley.  That was a shame although the director, Nigel Shaw Williams, did a fine job of weaving the ‘adult’ Scout and the ‘child’ Scout throughout the play.  My son picked up on that wardrobe detail that both Scouts had a similar blue colour palette while the rest of the production cast wore muted neutral colours.  “They did that to make them stand out,” he said.  I’m pretty pleased he picked up on the subtleties (and inconsistencies) of this production of To Kill a Mockingbird at Stratford.

It is always a joy to go to The Stratford Festival but it is even better when your 17-year-old son loves coming back again and again. In a couple of weeks, we are back for our final play – The Rocky Horror Show.  We’ll let you know how we like it! Until then… it’s just a jump to the left…

To Kill a Mockingbird at Stratford

Pulitzer Prize-winning Book by Harper Lee
Dramatized by Christopher Sergel
Director Nigel Shawn Williams

Festival Theatre

Runs:  to November 8th, 2018
Running time: 2 hr 40 min.

Audience Alert

To Kill a Mockingbird at Stratford contains adult themes, strong language and disturbing images that some may find offensive. Strobe lights and gunshots are used during the performance.

Stratford Festival through the years – Reviews

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