To Kill a Mockingbird: A Fresh Look at a Classic
Harper Lee’s, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ at the Kennedy Center, National Tour. Photos: Julieta Cervantes
By D. Kevin McNeir
Contributing Writer
Settling in my seat waiting for the curtain to rise, I didn’t expect to not only experience, but to participate in a riveting revision of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
As the cast took their final curtain calls on the Eisenhower Theater stage at The Kennedy Center in Northwest on Thursday night, I could barely hold back the tears that flowed freely from my eyes – and I was not alone.
But why the tears?
After all, I have both read and taught (to high school juniors) the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel on several occasions. And with the recent flurry of initiatives across America to ban the book from public school classrooms and libraries, this story of racial injustice and the loss of childhood innocence has forced me to both reconsider the message of its author and to question with greater alacrity why it has caused such a fury.
The 1962 screen version, led by the incomparable Gregory Peck as the small-town attorney, Atticus Finch, serves as an intricately woven film that, no matter how many times I see it, I continue to learn something new – both about myself and American society.
So, again, why the tears?
Someone in the audience, a woman, abandoned her seat during the scene during which we realize that despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Tom Robinson will be found guilty of the rape of a young white woman, Mayella Ewell – a crime he clearly could not and did not commit. Robinson, a black man, had often assisted Mayella with outdoor tasks at her request. But he faces his worst nightmare after she accuses him of following her into her family’s home and assaulting her.
My emotions continued to ebb when the Emmy Award-winning actor, Richard Thomas, delivers his closing statement to the jury. In his naivete, he believes that the goodness of people can trump the evil in which we more readily participate when we are part of a group – the mob. But he learns that even when “crawling around in the skin of others” to better understand them – words of advice he routinely offers – that he still cannot discern why his friends – the 12-man, all-white jury of his peers, not Robinson’s peers – can in good conscience, find the defendant guilty.
Yet the genuine cascade of tears was soon to arrive as the three children in the play, Atticus’s daughter and son, Scout (played by Maeve Moynihan) and Jem (played by Justin Mark), respectively, and their friend Dill (played by Steven Lee Johnson), are forced to contend with the harsh truth of man’s inhumanity to man. However, they maintain a portion of their childhood innocence when, despite the prevailing winds of injustice and intolerance that appear to fuel prejudice of the past and present, “joy cometh in the morning.”
In Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant revision of this timeless, tour de force classic, the audience is asked toreconsider the validity of America’s long-held notions of privilege and personhood based on race. To his credit, Sorkin interjects a series of comedic one-liners which initially was unsettling, but later would become instrumental in helping the audience deal with alternating emotions of anger, resentment, frustration and disbelief. These feelings surfaced as I watched an all-too familiar tale of racial hatred that would lead to the death of an innocent black man, the inevitable destruction of his family and the disillusionment of the three courageous youth.
Sorkin also revises the play to allow for one-on-one encounters with many of the characters including several that occur between Atticus and the family’s maid, Calpurnia. In one instance, Atticus tells her, “I believe in being respectful” – a reference to his reluctance to pass judgment on those like Mayella’s racist father and others like him who have been unable to escape the shame of their beloved South and their way of life being derailed in their loss of the Civil War. In response, Calpurnia quickly replies, “No matter who you disrespect by doing it.”
Calpurnia, played to perfection by Jacqueline Williams, also offers Atticus and the audience, sound advice, saying that she has discerned the spirit to fight within his children and that he should, “let them fight” – a notion that Atticus initially questions before later yielding to its truth.
No matter on which side of the fence you may currently rest, you cannot see “To Kill a Mockingbird” and remain the same.
Indeed, after the superb performances of a stellar cast, which includes Yaegel T. Welch, David Christopher Wells, Joey Collins, David Manis, Mariah Lee, Mary Badham and Travis Johns, and with the ingenuity of the playwright, I am even more convinced of two things: Everything must change, and that you are never too old to learn.
Perhaps, as others see this production, they may be more inclined to let in the truth and embrace the real.
Further accolades go out to Bartlett Sher, the director, who was nominated for the 2019 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for “To Kill a Mockingbird,” as well as Miriam Buether (Scenic Design), Ann Roth (Costume Design) and Jennifer Tipton (Lighting Design), each of whom were nominated for 2019 Tony Awards for their respective roles in and contributions to the production. The choice of various shades of gray employed in the lighting of the stage and the carefully selected costumes representative of the rural south made it easy for the audience to believe that we had somehow been transported back to 1934 and the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” continues through August 27 at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street, NW, Washington, D.C. For tickets, visit www.kennedy-center.org, or call the box office at (202) 467-4600.
D. Kevin McNeir is an award-winning journalist with more than 25 years of service, primarily for the Black Press (NNPA). Currently based in the District, McNeir provides investigative reports, commentaries, and content writing (entertainment, politics, sports, business, faith, and health) for non-profits and publications throughout the U.S. McNeir has held positions from beat reporter to senior editor for media outlets that include the New Jersey Urban News, The Washington Informer, The Miami Times, The Atlanta Voice, N’DIGO (Chicago), The Michigan Chronicle and The Grand Rapids Times. In June 2023, he became a four-time winner/finalist for Weekly Newspaper, Commentary & Criticism, Society of Professional Journalists, Washington, D.C. Pro Chapter, for his branded column, “The World According to Dominic.”