Leeds Playhouse – until 4 October 2025
Reviewed by Dawn Smallwood
5*****
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird comes to life on stage at the Leeds Playhouse. Lee’s novel, written in 1960, is adapted by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Bartlett Sher. The novel is set in the United States’ Deep South, in the 1930s and the Great Depression Era. It explores first hand innocence and issues that resonate today such as racial injustice and inequality triggering systemic and propagated misinformation.
Innocently and to some extent, cautiously, the story is forefront narrated by Scout (Anna Munden). Scout is in the company of her brother, Jem (Gabriel Scott), their friend Dill (Dylan Malyn) and their father, Atticus Finch (Richard Coyle) who is a small town but successful lawyer. The story centres round Atticus defending Tom Robinson (Aaron Shosanya), an innocent black man who is accused of raping a young white woman. The trial unravels the racial injustice Robinson faces and how racist slurs, racism and segregation tragically epitomise the defender’s fate and its consequences.
To Kill A Mockingbird entertains humour, warmth, and wit amid poignancy throughout. However, Atticus (Coyle) is not afraid to challenge the prejudices that face the defendant and how they are systemically intertwined in everyday life including the justice system. He is consciously aware, morally factual, and empathetic and it is observed how the defence shines through the dark times.
Miriam Buether’s staging is versatile for the stories told and the space is well used particularly for a courtroom and is ambiently complimented with Jennifer Tipton’s lighting and Scott Lehrer’s soundscapes.
Munden, as Scout, successfully narrates and keeps the audience engaged with what is happening in the town along with the numerous characters’ updates. An excellent portrayal of Atticus by Coyle, who is recreating the role after performing it in the West End production, and he projects passionately the quest for true justice for Tom Robinson. One is moved by Shosanya’s humble and emotive portrayal as Tom Robinson.
To Kill A Mockingbird consciously captivates those issues and the short-lived innocence experienced and how they resonate today as much as then. It is an excellent, well planned, and innovative production that gives insight to how fragile lives can be and how lives can be totally ruined by prejudices, individually and systematically. It is important, more than ever, for society to rise together, and to recognise what divides them, and importantly to pursue humanity, kindness, justice, and truth.