When Atticus’ courage is pointed out by his son as a quality he admires, I was astonished. She seems to be the bravest voice in the play.Ĭal’s loss of patience with Atticus reminds me that my favorite novel completely overlooks the perspective of Tom Robinson. She beautifully uses sarcasm to point out Atticus’ almost childlike expectations that somehow empathy breeds respect, and the jury will deliver a not guilty verdict. She asks him if he really understands their neighbors, and is angry with Atticus for his naivete. The director has Cal, who is described by Scout as “almost like a sister” to Atticus, quietly reflecting on her employer’s stupidity taking the risk of placing Tom Robinson on trial in their town. Then there is the trouble with the character of Calpurnia, a housekeeper who had lived her whole life in service of the Finch family. That likely means the Finch family benefited from white privilege. I have always admired the character of Atticus Finch his integrity, willingness to be kind, and his sense of ethics appealed to me as they stood out as exceptional examples of human behavior.īut should these really be exceptional qualities? Should this story about a white man coming to terms with the hatred and ignorance of racism in his community really be that outstanding? If you recall the novel, the Finch family had a long history of living in the south and profiting off of the land. Watching this “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a few things jumped out at me that I missed in my English class in the late 1980s. And after the last few years, we certainly have a more woke lens about racism than we did in 1960 (when the novel first was published).
After all, plays offer the opportunity to re-tell old favorite stories with modern lenses.
While that’s a great story, and one worth reading and re-visiting, I hungered for more out of this play than it delivered.
Left to right: Justin Mark as Jem Finch, Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch, Melanie Moore as Scout Finch, and Steven Lee Johnson as Dill Harris.
0 kommentar(er)
