With Kevin Campbell as Atticus Finch, Ian Michael Johnson as Tom Robinson, Robbie Jaeger as the prosecuting attorney, Jim Greenwood as Bob Ewell, and Annette B. Gill reprising her portrayal Miss Maudie, the frontline performers of Matthews Playhouse’s current production of To Kill a Mockingbird are stronger than their adult counterparts in Davidson Community Players’ current Almost, Maine. So why is it barely half as good?
Simple, really. You’ll have to wait until Act 2 for the child actors onstage in Matthews to move sufficiently to the periphery for the adults to shine. While it’s laudable that artistic director June Bayless has lured all this fine talent eastward on Highway 51, she’d be better off looking northward to Davidson for better examples of theater pragmatism. Maine, like its DCP predecessors, West Side Story and Barefoot in the Park, relies on adolescents, collegians, and adults in its casting. No kids.
My guess is that Bayless never sat in the back row of the Playhouse while she directed rehearsals. She’d have to be gray from worry — or bald from tearing her hair out — if this were all she could do to get the youngsters to project to the rear of the hall. Leaving aside their attempts at acting, I gave up on hearing Jem and Dill pretty early — even though I was advantaged by sitting in the ninth row. Little Scout, I must say, had the odd surge of audibility here and there.
Greenwood as the abusive accuser of the kindly, hapless Robinson is particularly fine in his vulgar malevolence. But you’ll also find delightful work from Vanessa Figgers as the housekeeper, Calpurnia, and from Betsey Dalzell as the gossipy Miss Stephanie. Brad Parker does justice to Sheriff Tate’s big speech, and Paul Ash brings a believable affability to homespun vigilante Walter Cunningham.
The polish from the adults associated with this Mockingbird extends to Rebecca Primm’s set design and Tiffany Verch’s costumes. When I exited after the show, I checked the faces in the crowd and noted a tear in the eye of a young man fairly close to the rear. In spite of Christopher Sergel’s lackluster adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel, the adults had succeeded in projecting the heart of the story. Even Bayless’s gaucheness at the signature moments — the revelatory rifle shot, the jailhouse encounter between Scout and the vigilante, and the blacks’ deference toward Atticus after the guilty verdict — couldn’t entirely dull the impact. Mockingbird isn’t kid-proof, but it’s a sturdy bird.
Charlotte’s Web is next over yonder. If there are kids in that cast, consider yourself warned.
This article appears in Oct 20-26, 2009.
