THEATRE REVIEW: To Kill A Mockingbird ★★★★★

To Kill A Mockingbird
The Everyman Theatre
27th April 2015

Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird has a place in my history after studying the book back in 2012 for my GCSE English, and I can remember from my classes how in each of them, many of my peers would volunteer to read certain characters, or pages from the book, aloud to the rest of the class, and I believe that this was because the teacher would want us to listen to the words spoken out loud from the pages of the book, so it was with great pleasure that this very production did exactly that; opening with the ensemble cast walking from the back, through the auditorium, with a different covered version of the book, onto the stage, and slowly one by one, reading aloud the first few pages of the book.

Straight from the start, as soon as you walk into these auditorium, you know you are in for a real treat, as you witness this almost empty stage, with only a single tree with a circular tyre swing attached. There is also panels around the back of the set, with seats, a bed, and a door on the side, ready to be put into place for their appropriate scene's.

Though nothing can truly prepare you more than the finest of acting that was produced on stage. With child actors, each night will probably bring along a different trio of actors playing Scout, Jem and Dill, so on this particular night, I had Rosie Boore as Scout, Billy Price as Jem, and Milo Panni as Dill, who were all undeniably spectacular in their roles. Everything about the way they call conveyed all these emotions throughout the play into their characters was inspiring to see on stage, as they all oozed charisma and chemistry between each other on stage, and with the addition of Daniel Betts as Atticus Finch, the whole production felt incredibly tight, with the perfect choice of scenes to be reconstructed on stage. One particular highlight they was realizing in the second act just how compelled and in tune the audience were within the action on stage, as when the trial of Tom Robinson was unfolding on stage, you could almost hear a pin drop in the auditorium.

Overall, To Kill A Mockingbird is classic storytelling at its very best, and is most certainly a production that should be witnessed by anyone who gets the chance, as they will be as compelled by the story through the eyes of Scout Finch as much as the audience were tonight.