1 commentRichardson — Staging To Kill A Mockingbird presents a challenge not unlike that of The Music Man. In both shows the main character is indelibly identified with the original portrayer. In the case of Mockingbird that would be Gregory Peck, who won an Academy Award and the hearts of millions with his performance as a white attorney defending a black man falsely accused of rape in 1930s Alabama. (Local audiences are about to get a big taste of the work as Dallas Theater Center and Casa Mañana prepare for a co-production beginning in September, with community-wide readings of the classic Harper Lee novel.)
Good News: Richardson Theatre Centre's current revival of Mockingbird has solved the Peck Problem. Ted Strahan hits the mark with bull's-eye accuracy as Atticus Finch. If the characterization falls short of perfection, it's not due to Strahan's acting. The reason may sound trivial when I mention it, so I'm not going to talk about it until later.
Orbitting Strahan's superbly modulated portrayal is a chorus of gossiping biddies and a youthful trio. As Atticus' pre-teen daughter, Scout, Victoria Gilchrist leads the latter contingent. She's funny and feisty and huggably endearing—all without seeming to try. Brandon Simmons is earnest as her brother, Jem. And Riley Niksich is precocious and sassy as Dill, the neighbor kid that Lee based on her real-life friend, Truman Capote.
Eight-year-old Niksich has a lot of performing years ahead of him. But it's not too early to work on grownup stuff such as diction and pacing. He slurs some lines and hurries others. And he's not the only culprit. Chris Stakem plays both the mysterious Boo Radley and Boo's Uncle Nathan. He's fine as Boo. As Nathan, you can't understand half of what he says.
Maybe some day I will have the opportunity to see David Lambert portray Santa Claus or Father Flanagan. For now, I will cross the street if I ever see this guy approach me. Lambert's portrayal of brutal bigot Bob Ewell is that sinister and that convincing. Spitting out the N-word as if it were a stream of tobacco (which he also spits), Lambert paints a garish and jagged portrait of that element of society traditionally and accurately labeled "trash."
(And, yes, that six-letter slur alluded to above is spoken throughout this production. Excessive, perhaps. But we're depicting racism and racists here. And in one scene Atticus uses the term as a teaching tool for Scout's betterment.)
Morgan Spollin keeps narrative moving along smoothly as the adult Scout, recalling and commenting on events.
Paul Flanagan II, as the defendant, has only one major scene. But he makes it memorable. Katy Kirkwood, as Mayella, the young woman who wrongly accuses him, manages to elicit both your anger and your sympathy. And Kirkwood is certainly capable of firm focus. At last Sunday's matinee she concluded Mayella's testimony to the accompaniment of not one but two loudly ringing cell phones in the audience.
RTC's 150-seat playhouse has a small performing area, which set designer Charlie Alexander maximizes with rear projections of the Finch house and neighboring sites.
Christopher Sergel probably had Horton Foote's Oscar-winning movie script in mind when he adapted Lee's novel to the stage. (He omitted the same subplots.) It's difficult to imagine what director Rachael Lindley had in mind when she sent her lead actor onto the stage costumed so jarringly modern. This year is Nineteen-Flipping-Thirty-Five. Atticus Finch wears a rumpled seersucker suit. Vest and suspenders optional. Strahan looks like he stepped out of last year's Armani catalogue. If everyone else weren't dressed appropriate to the period, it might not look so goofy.
Lindley, bless her overworked heart, wears several hats in this production. One of them is "costumer," so the fashion anachronism ball would seem to be in her court. 
