To Kill a Mockingbird Archives

To Kill a Mockingbird – Sheffield Lyceum

28Jan

By Jo TillotsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

To Kill a Mockingbird – Sheffield Lyceum

A man of colour stands accused of a crime he did not commit, and yet he is judged more for the colour of his skin than his words of defence. His white lawyer is judged for representing him. His town is divided along racial lines, and between those who seek progress and those who want to preserve the old way of life. An all-too-common description of events we see in the news in 2026, yes. But also the plot of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, set in 1930s Alabama. An era defined by the struggle for progress, equality and freedom. A story that remains chillingly relevant today. This production of To Kill a Mockingbird, adapted by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Bartlett Sher, uses Sorkin’s extensive screenwriting experience from shows such as The West Wing and The Newsroom alon...

15Jan

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

To Kill a Mockingbird – The Lowry

If the rest of my theatrical year measures up to this stunning start, then I am in for a vintage 2026. My first outing is a superb stage rendering of Harper Lee’s 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, currently midway through an extensive UK tour following its runaway success on the London stage earlier this decade. A distinctly diverse audience greeted the production at the cavernous Lyric Theatre in Salford for this packed press night. A mixture of ageing grey hairs (like myself), with distant memories of studying the book for O-level, mingled with excitable GCSE students who have encountered Scout, Atticus and Boo Radley much more recently. All were entranced by the stage adaptation of the novel which, whilst staying faithful to the spirit and morality of the original, managed to find 21...

To Kill a Mockingbird – Festival Theatre

23Oct

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

To Kill a Mockingbird – Festival Theatre

All rise. Atticus Finch is back in court, and on this particular evening in Edinburgh it isn’t Richard Coyle behind the spectacles but John J. O’Hagan, stepping up from first cover to take on one of American literature’s most beloved men of principle. He does so with quiet assurance. Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, reborn for the stage by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Bartlett Sher, has been touring the UK with glowing tributes. The Edinburgh stop at the Festival Theatre proves both admirable and exhausting, a beautifully acted, morally charged evening that never-the-less feels every minute of its bloated three-and-a-quarter-hour runtime. Sorkin’s adaptation has long been praised for shifting the novel’s moral centre from saintly nostalgia to uneasy realism. His Atticus isn’t carved...

19Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

To Kill a Mockingbird – Leeds Playhouse

Generations of school children have read To Kill a Mockingbird’s tale of racial injustice in 1930s Alabama as past history, but watching citizens in today’s America being arrested without any due process means it has once again become a warning. With his background as the creator of the unashamedly liberal The West Wing, it was obvious Oscar winning writer Aaron Sorkin would bring something new to the theatrical version of Harper Lee’s classic novel. Lee tells the story of a small town lawyer Atticus Finch, who agrees to defend a black man Tom Robinson accused of raping a white woman, much to the disgust of many in the fictional segregated town of Maycomb. The story is told by Finch’s feisty daughter Scout looking back at events that changed her family’s lives forever, and ther...