The heavy handed direction has turned this poigniant, moving novel (and film) of southern prejudice in the 30’s into a stilted, unemotional production.
The pace in the film (like the south itself) is slow and deliberate and allows the viewer to savor each line of dialogue. This stage production achieves none of this.

Conversely, all of the film’s pregnant pauses are noticeably missing in this adaptation.

In one of the most moving scenes in the film after the verdict, when the black preacher says “miss Jean Louise, stand up, (pause) your father is passing”; there is not only a missing pause, but you feel that the actor can’t wait to get the line out, thereby ruining the dramatic impact of the scene.

What was central to the gradual realization by the children that Boo Radley was not the monster they assumed; was the finding of the objects in the tree hollow and the dicussion that followed. The significance of these encounters was glossed over by the director.

The acting for the most part was perfunctory (with notable exceptions of the boy Dill, Bob Ewell, May Ella, Tom Robinson and Atticus’ courtroom summation). The director’s decision to include in the cast an on-stage narrator (a grown Scout) could have enhanced the play if done properly. As it turned out, her voice was irritating, and detracted from the plot. She had neither the speaking voice (delivering her lines like she was on a soap box) nor the ability to handle this pivotal role.

Also, the scene changes were clumsy and unimaginative.

In conclusion, this play definitely equals the sum of it’s parts–by rushing headlong to it’s expected unemotional curtain.

Robert S. Hendrick