REVIEW: Magnificent ‘Mockingbird’ tour comes to Hancher in Iowa City

IOWA CITY — “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a masterpiece in any era, in any medium.

Aaron Sorkin’s 2018 stage adaptation is a profound indictment of hatred and prejudice, and Tony-winning director Bartlett Sher brilliantly directs that toward the audience, using the youngest player to intone: “All rise.” So many meanings out of two simple words.

Richard Thomas is incendiary as lawyer Atticus Finch, moving Friday’s opening night audience to audible gasps and an immediate standing ovation at Hancher Auditorium. The touring production is playing five performances in Iowa City through Sunday night.

This is must-see theater. It is a pointed reminder that the racial prejudice that led to the arrest of an innocent Black man accused of raping a young white woman in the Deep South during the Depression, remains largely unchanged 90 years later.

In a preview interview with The Gazette, Thomas said: “I want people when they leave the theater, rather than congratulating themselves for not being racist, for being on the right side of the story, I’d like them to actually interrogate their own experience in terms of where they sit in the matrix of social justice — through their family history, or their own prejudices or what they have or haven’t done in their lives,” he said. “Because everybody’s a part of the story, and you shouldn’t walk out of the theater feeling self-congratulatory. You should walk out (asking) ‘OK, what have I done, what can I do?’ ”

Mission accomplished.

The show is magnificent.

I costumed an earlier stage version at Theatre Cedar Rapids in 1999 and saw it again outdoors at Brucemore in 2009. And while I don’t recall all the nuances to specify the differences between that script and Sorkin’s, the Oscar-winning and much-lauded writer has retained all of the salient points of the original telling, while making it even more relatable today.

And he wove humor — sometimes subtle, oftentimes laugh-out-loud — into the dialogue.

Thomas, best known for his Emmy-winning turn as John-Boy Walton, gives the humor a wry twist, delivering the laugh lines with just the right tone and tenor. He’s equally at home as a loving, widowed father to his two children; a co-parent and good friend with his Black housekeeper and children’s caretaker; a caring lawyer thrust into an impossible courtroom situation; a champion of justice and the Constitution; and part of the moral compass of the story.

A stroke of directing genius is having Finch turn to the audience instead of the jury to pour on the fire in his closing argument, part of which warns: “We have to heal this wound or we will never stop bleeding.”

Many others make up the moral compass, as well, beginning with the children. This is a memory story told by Jean Louise “Scout” Finch (Scout Backus), her older brother, Jem (Justin Mark), and their new friend Dill Harris (Steven Lee Johnson). They are played by young adults, which was a very smart choice by the playwright and director.

They narrate the story to the audience, recalling situations that would viewed naively by children, but take on a richer, deeper meaning as they mature. And while all three bring a perspective borne of years, they easily slip into youthful exuberance and recklessness — vocally, physically and emotionally.

Sorkin, who sought to elevate the Black voices in the story, has given actors and audiences something to treasure and a historical perspective that should make everyone squirm.

Jacqueline Williams is nothing short of superb as housekeeper Calpurnia, who schools Finch and his children on the Black point of view throughout the trials and tribulations, with an especially impassioned admonition to them all. Yaegel T. Welch is gut-wrenching as Tom Robinson, the Black man standing trial for a crime he couldn’t physically have committed.

Mariah Lee is pitiful and infuriating as Mayella Ewell, who has pointed her finger at Robinson as her attacker. Ted Koch is frightening and horrifying as Mayella’s cruel, bigoted father, Bob Ewell. Jeff Still has some of the best lines and exasperated looks as Judge Taylor. And University of Iowa graduate Greg Jackson as the town drunk, Link Deas, has one of the most touching scenes toward the end.

But that’s not all. One of the gems of this touring cast is that the role of the elderly, crotchety and downright mean Mrs. Henry Dubose is played by Mary Badham, who received an Oscar nomination for portraying Scout in the 1962 film starring Gregory Peck.

The one character I remember seeing more of in the past is the reclusive neighbor Boo Radley, played beautifully by Ian Bedford. This is a pivotal role in Scout’s memory, who deserved more stage time in this adaptation.

The scenery moves fluidly between the Finch home, the jail and the courtroom, in carefully choreographed changes that actually enhance the action that continues around them, instead of detracting from it. Sound, lighting and costumes complete the picture, capturing both the period and universality of the setting.

Why anyone would ever want to ban and suppress Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning story is beyond me. We have so much to learn.

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com