To Kill a Mockingbird

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To Kill a Mockingbird

by Christopher Sergel, from Harper Lee’s novel

TO Kill a Mockingbird, like A Man For All Seasons, is another of those plays we feel we know. Most of my generation studied both for Higher English. Most people have seen the film versions. And there are similarities between the two: a strong, principled central character, who defies the odds at great personal cost. Both are set in times of unrest. But however familiar, both stand up to re-discovery and are welcome in this season’s line-up.

PFT’s artistic director, John Durnin, directs To Kill A Mockingbird. And what a splendid, great big ensemble production this is. We are so lucky that a small theatre in Highland Perthshire can produce a play requiring over 20 actors, and in doing so, give us a moving, shocking, ultimately uplifting tale of humanity under duress.

Set in Maycomb, Alabama, in the summer and autumn of 1935, it is a time of lynch mobs murdering black people while white people look on . . . Not all people, though. Atticus Finch, a lawyer, is preparing to defend a young black man, Tom Robinson, accused of raping a white woman.

A lost cause from the outset, but Atticus is not someone to allow American “justice” to stand in the way of his own values and belief that human beings can do better.

Gregory Peck made the role of Atticus famous in the 1962 film version and PFT’s Jonathan

Coote’s portrayal certainly carries some of Peck’s quiet strength and even his voice’s timbre. It is a memorable performance. Joel Trill as Tom Robinson is heart-breaking as the man who knows his trial is hopeless. Richard Addison is chilling as the ignorant, awful Bob Ewell, who terrorises his daughter Mayella (splendid Kezia Burrows) into claiming Robinson raped her.

The stand-out performances for me, though, are from Aoibheann O’Hara and Dominic Brewer as the Finch children Scout and Jem, along with their friend Dill (Stewart Cairns). The three are the heart of the play.

Everything about this production is great. Don’t miss it.

Kind Hearts & Coronets

Adapted by Giles Croft from the screenplay by Robert Hamer and John Dighton

THIS might turn out to be my play of the season at PFT. Richard Baron’s direction of Kind Hearts & Coronets, along with some delicious acting, a stylish, clever set and costumes (Ken Harrison) make this a delight to behold.

Famous for the film version in which Alec Guinness played the entire D’Ascoyne family, it translates well to the stage. It is a comedy, but a very black one, considering its central theme of bumping off virtually every one of the D’Ascoynes.

Hywel Morgan is Louis Mazzini. His mother, a member of the aristocratic D’Ascoyne family, does the unthinkable and marries for love. Her husband is an Italian singer, who tragically dies, leaving his widow to raise Louis single-handedly. Her attempts to reconcile with her family are futile, and she faces rejection upon rejection. When she also dies, impoverished, Louis, now a young man, vows to take revenge on the D’Ascoynes by becoming head of the family. To achieve this, however, he must kill his wealthy relations . . .

In a very different role from Henry VIII in A Man For All Seasons, Hywel Morgan’s Louis is excellent. He succeeds in making this murderer attractive, clever, proud and sexy; you want him to achieve his ambition despite what that entails. His one weakness is the awful Sybilla: beautiful, spoiled, conniving; she marries for money and lives to regret it, particularly when she discovers Louis’s delicious kisses . . . Aoibheann O’Hara, one of this season’s brightest stars, is splendid in the role, and looks wonderful in Ken Harrison’s costumes. As does the ever-dependable Helen Logan as Louis’s mother and later, his wife. Gregory Gudgeon plays the entire D’Ascoyne family and provides much of the humour in the play.

Richard Baron describes Kind Hearts & Coronets as perhaps the most cherished and literate of all British film comedies. His version for PFT is certainly one to cherish.