To Kill a Mockingbird – Assistant Director’s Blog 1

“That’s not why my mind’s come back here.”

Memory and Blind Trust in To Kill a Mockingbird

Over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about how to pitch this blog. How do I suitably formulate something that entertains and informs in near equal measure? This is a view from the rehearsal room. From the inside, looking inside, speaking out. As such, it needs to relate and compliment the existing work of the rehearsal process: the techniques and applied ideas which have shaped this new production of Harper Lee’s classic novel. However, it must leave space for the inclusion of other thoughts, ideas and actions. Admiration and reflection, contrasts and variants: Elements which emerged in rehearsal and helped a character, scene or section find another level; elements which served a purpose, but were discarded in the long run. I hope to give them a bit of airtime, and something like a voice. This is my hope. Of course, over the next four weeks, these episodes might evolve into something entirely different. Wait and see. As things change, decisions get made, or the mood takes me. Hindsight’s a wonderful thing.

“Hello and welcome!” My name is John R. Wilkinson and I am Assistant Director on To Kill a Mockingbird. On Monday 17th February rehearsals began. Contingents from York Theatre Royal and The Touring Consortium Theatre Company met and greeted the acting company and production team: the creative unit that will work together to bring something very special into being. After coffee, catch ups and much remembering of names, en masse we headed off for a reading of the play.

Harper Lee has always maintained that her story of racial prejudice in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama is made-up. However, when reporters visited her home town of Monroeville, Alabama on the 30th anniversary of the book’s publication, they saw remarkable parallels to the novel, in terms of setting and character. The ills chronicled in the novel seem to have been realistically drawn from the author’s life. Like the novel, this new adaptation incorporates a complex first person point of view. Jean Louise, a grown-up Scout, tries to recount and make sense of the events of her childhood. Sometimes with confidence, other times with difficulty. We therefore have two interconnected perspectives: The pure view of a child and the memory of a more knowing adult.

Time passes, and as it does memories fade and distort. Studies have shown that we often build our memories after the fact, and that we are susceptible to suggestions from others that help us fill in the gaps. That is why, for example, a policeman investigating a crime shouldn’t show a picture of a single suspect to a victim and ask if the victim recognizes the assailant. If the victim is then presented with a line-up and picks out the individual in the photograph, there is no way of knowing whether the victim is remembering the assailant or the picture. Or in another instance, a good lawyer can rip apart a false testimony simply by going after the facts. Memory is so malleable that we should be very careful in claiming certainty about any given memory without corroborative evidence.

How sure is Jean Louise of her story? Is she in some instances, remembering correctly? How certain does she feel? Is she mistaken in her mind?

I count myself dually lucky and unlucky that I came to To Kill a Mockingbird later in life. My sister studied it as a set text, but for me it was a post-school encounter. I say “lucky” as it afforded me the luxury of not having to analyse it immediately. I could sit back and read it purely for pleasure. I say “unlucky” because I now wonder if, in order to feel the full force of the injustices, you need to read it as a child. Do we need innocence to see innocence? I actually watched the film first, and not from the beginning. The first scene I saw was the children sneaking out at night to touch the Radley house, when Scout slicks up the hinges of the gate. I was struck by the darkly Gothic nature of it. There was a breed of tension in there which made it almost Hitchcockian. It was something about the children, seeing them in the noir, and their wide eyed belief that the illusory spectre of Boo Radley, warped by hearsay and whisper, was entirely real.

The condition of blind trust is by no means restricted to the children in the novel. Every character at one point or another is plagued by it. The Ewells accuse Tom Robinson in the belief that all Negroes are seen as dishonest and devious. Most of the townsfolk are too set in their prejudices to acknowledge the blatant miscarriage of the trial. Even Atticus, the goodliest and noblest of men, believes too deeply in the innate goodness of mankind. He cannot possibly comprehend that a man would try to harm innocent children.

Hearing the play read in its entirety for the first time evoked similar thoughts and feelings to those I experienced upon first seeing the film. Again there was a bizarre mixture of trepidation and excitement. Once the read-through had finished, Director Damian Cruden outlined the overall idea and feel for the production. Designer Liam Doona previewed the model box and costumes and other bits of visual stimuli. I’m not going to tell you any more about this now. I’m going to leave you on tenterhooks…

So let’s get to the rehearsal room proper, where Dialect Coach Caroline Hetherington got things going with a voice session. Though we find ourselves in a relatively confined area of the American Deep South, there are lots of subtle variances in accent. The accent of the “Poor White” differs from the accent of the “Southern Gentlemen”. The speech of Negroes is different to the speech of whites. There are many subtle differences, just as there are many commonalities. It seems diversity and harmony even influences language and syntax. It goes even deeper, into words of love and hate, right and wrong, truth and untruth.

The rest of this week will be spent working roughly through the text, so that some form of dynamic becomes apparent and binding. Once the basics are down and blocking roughly set, breakdown and synthesis can begin.

Thank you for reading. Until next time…

JRW