April 27-29, 2007
Dramatized by Christopher Sergel
Based on the novel by Harper Lee
Director – Meg Dussault
The Un-Common Theatre Company is pleased to present To Kill a Mockingbird, the first non-musical show that it has put on in many years. Scout and her brother Jem are being raised by their widower father, Atticus, and by a strong-minded housekeeper, Calpurnia, in a quiet southern town in 1935. Wide-eyed Scout is fascinated with the sensitively revealed people of her small town but, from the start, there’s a rumble of thunder just under the calm surface of the life here. The black people of the community have a special feeling about Scout’s father and she doesn’t know why. A few of her white friends are inexplicably hostile and Scout doesn’t understand this either. Unpleasant things are shouted and the bewildered girl turns to her father. Atticus, a lawyer, explains that he’s defending a young Negro wrongfully accused of a grave crime. Since this is causing such an upset, Scout wants to know why he’s doing it. “Because if I didn’t,” her father replies, “I couldn’t hold my head up.” Things get bitter to the point where Atticus props himself in a chair against the cell door of the man he’s defending and confronts an angry mob. Horrified Scout projects herself into this confrontation and her inconvenient presence helps bring back a little sanity. Atticus fights his legal battle with a result that is part defeat, part triumph.
This dramatization of the touching classic tale is a meaningful work of art.
To Kill a Mockingbird is produced by arrangement with, and dialogue material furnished by The Dramatic Publishing Co, CT.
Cultural Council Grants: Foxboro, Mansfield and Sharon