Posted: 11/2/18 at 6:04pm
Parade3 said: "I tried to post this earlier on my phone, but I don't think it went through. I am new here, though I have read on and off for years. I registered last night after seeing To Kill a Mockingbird.
I cannot agree with the high praise that has been posted on this thread for To Kill a Mockingbird. I thought the play was awful. I thought it failed in every single way - as a play, as an adaptation, in its acting, in its story. There is too much for me to cover here, but I'll start here: Atticus Finch is a nonviolent character. He classically turns the other cheek. That is Atticus Finch 101. This play takes that premise and laughs at it. In this play, Atticus Finch begins a physical altercation with Bob Ewell. The play begins in the middle of the trial. Boo Radley is practically an afterthought. Scout can't recall who actually killed Bob Ewell despite the text making that clear at the end of the novel (she definitely knows). Calpurnia, Tom, Jem, and Scout all speak with 2018 voices, not those Lee wrote for them, not those you would have found in 1930s Alabama, and certainly nothing you remember from the book. All the characters are presented as caricatures of themselves, and the play as Aaron Sorkin writes it seems like To Kill a Mockingbird fanfiction, or a book that Aaron Sorkin wished had been written but wasn't so he "fixed" it. Link Deas and Dolphus Raymond are unsuccessfully merged into one character who shares superficial traits with both and then adds in some more, new traits for bad measure. When Dill, who for some reason is from Louisiana instead of Mississippi in this version, leaves town after one summer, Scout says she never saw him again, despite the fact that this is not hinted at in the book, Lee and Capote stayed in each other's lives well into adulthood, and Scout lives in the same town as Aunt Rachel, who presumably could inform the Finches about her nephew's whereabouts. In the novel Atticus NEVER thinks he will win the trial. He may think they have a good chance on appeal, but he never thinks he will win the first trial, saying, memorably, that just because you're licked before you begin is no reason not to start. In this play, Sorkin creates an Atticus Finch who unrealistically wholly believes he will win the trial on the first go-round. If any of these ideas are from Watchman, I have blocked thatfirst draft of a novel that was never intended to act as a sequel or serve as 'canon'from my mind, having read it once and then never again. That draft (not novel or book) should have no impact or influence on a dramatic adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. It's not related, it's a first draft. The "win" in the novel at the trial is the fact that the jury takes the whole day to decide Tom is guilty; in the play, Atticus says it took just 37 minutes. I could go on.
Sorkin, Sher, Rudin, and I'll throw in Daniels here, too, have a lot to be ashamed of here. They gut Lee's work, Sorkin replaces Lee's own fine sense of storytelling (and humor) with his own version, telling a story he wishes was true.
The fractured way the play is told never captures the vigenette style Lee employs in the first half of her novel. The actors (particularly all the 'children,' Calpurnia, and, of course, Jeff Daniels as a parody of Atticus Finch) are smug and sanctimonius in their roles. I felt preached to all night long. The genius of Lee's novel is imparting heavy truths in ways children can understand. Instead I felt like a finger was wagging in my face all night.
No merchandise. Thank God. I would have bought it as I walked in and trashed it on my way out. I don't understand the adulation seen thus far on this thread for this play, nor the comparisons to The Ferryman, which is a finely structured and acted play, and which I loved last week when I saw it. To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite novel. It is an American classic. It is relevant today in its original form. I am sorry for the myopia that prevented Sorkin, et. al., from seeing that.
I waited 25 years or thereabouts from my first reading of TKaM as a child for it to come to Broadway. My disappointment is profound. I hope to see it honorably adapted within my lifetime."
But did you enjoy it?
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