Ambassador’s review Mockingbird

The statement of the play was prejudice. It was of people whom are different. They were different from others and they were judged for this. This is a deep play and the problems which this play is about are also problems which we have in our society of today. This play itself was set in the 1930’s in a small town in Alabama. It was about the crime of a young black skinned man of the name Tom Robinson (Cornelius Macarthy) whom had allegally raped a young white skinned woman named Mayella Ewell (Clare Corbett) and of the court case to state whether this man is guilty or not guilty. I felt it was an effective play and was very interesting. I felt it also brings up of the problems of what we have today. People of today are treated differently for their colour, background, features and past amongst many other things.
I felt that the character of Atticus Finch was a very powerful and strong one. Mr Finch was a strong man. He was the only one who was fighting for this black man who was trying to prove his innocence. He was different from everyone else. He wanted to save this man instead of have him killed. He believed everyone had the same rights no matter what colour or gender. The Actor who portrayed Atticus (Duncan Preston) did a amazing job playing this character.
The two characters who were victimised in this play was Tom Robinson and Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley( Matt Rixon). Tom was victimised for having a different coloured skin and Arthur was victimised for being different. Arthur had many rumours told about him by everyone in the town to where people thought he was some sort of crazy man who should be in a mental asylum. Both of these characters are completely sane and have no problems though are being treated differently which creates sympathy for these characters which this play also is about.
I found that the set design was also effective. I felt it was very effective at the start when it was almost like a box and then the older version of the character of Jean Louise Finch ( Jacqueline Wood ) entered the box as if it was going back into her childhood memories. I found this was very effective. I also found that the screen projection was also very effective. I liked how it showed these memories of Jean Louise and how it did not link in with the movement of the characters completly. As the other character re lived the memory we saw the main key features which Jean Louise herself had remembered.

Overall, I would say that I would definitely recommend seeing this play again and for others who have not seen it, to see it. It is definitely is an amazing piece and contains issues which we have in our society today.

Laura-Jane, Joseph Rowntree School

To Kill a Mockingbird is an immense story about prejudice filled with strong emotion and strong characters, if you have ever read the book you would have been amazed at the detail which has been portrayed in this performance. One of the highlights in this play was the actions which came with the emotions, and also the way that they portrayed their lines, it actually gave the effect that we were in Alabama with them, another highlight is the amount of effort they put in to showing the emotion and keeping it in check, Cornelies Macarthy, who plays the character – Tom Robinson, stated that he would simply sit there during the interval and rehearsals ­­­keeping his character and the emotion fresh in mind.

The fact that this is one of the first showings of this story as a production in a theatre makes this truly special, even though it was one of the first times it was shown and in my opinion I believe they did an immensely great job in showing the storyline, also the effort that the actors have put in to make this the best it could possibly be is very impressive.

The dedication to the technical side of the production was truly amazing, the highlights of which being the lighting design, set design and music Composition, the music was composed by Christopher Madin, the lighting designed by Rich Jones. The amount of different dialects and accents is outstanding, the time devoted to their language and the care placed in order to perfect them was the best I have heard in a long time.

However, I believe that the few downsides of the performance was the volume of some of the speech and the vagueness of some of the scenes, a member of the audience stated that “With the music and the speech at the same time, we couldn’t quite catch what was happening…”. also in a few scenes the lighting may have been a too dark for some audience members and unclear what might have been happening.

Douglas White

I had heard of To Kill a Mockingbird before, but I had never read the book, so I had absolutely no idea what the play was about. As I took my seat in the theatre, I was wondering whether the play actually contained any mockingbirds. Then the lights went down, the curtain went up, and I was completely blown away. The acting was incredible, the Alabama accents unnaturally convincing, and I was on the edge of my seat from start to end. The story deals with the serious issue of racial injustice towards black people in 1930’s America. Set in Maycomb, a fictional town in Alabama, it follows the narrator, a young girl named Scout Finch, her brother Jem and their friend Dill. Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer, and initially Scout and Jem are embarrassed by it. The three children are excited when they hear a tale of ‘Boo’ Radley, a mysterious man who has never been out of his house in 30 years. Jem, Scout and Dill devise plans to lure Boo out of his house, but Atticus dissuades them, advising them to ‘put themselves in other people’s shoes’ and ‘not to kill a mockingbird’. As the story progresses and becomes darker, the meaning of Atticus’s message becomes clearer. He is called upon to defend Tom Robinson, a local black man accused of raping the daughter of the town drunk, Mayella Ewell.

During the courthouse scene I was riveted to the actors on stage, hanging onto every word, following the arguments back and forth like a game of tennis at Wimbledon. The lines were delivered with such precise timing, the expressions so lifelike that I couldn’t help but think of it as a real court case. It becomes obvious that Mayella and her father Bob Ewell are lying, but after an incredibly long discussion, the jury decides to condemn Tom Robinson anyway.  The interval was placed during the court scene, so the audience, unless they knew the story, were left hanging as to the outcome. When the verdict was revealed I couldn’t help but feel dismayed along with the characters on stage, as the perfection of the acting had got to me.

In a thrilling edge-the-seat-climax, Bob Ewell, shamed by the court case and vowing revenge on Atticus, attacks Scout and Jem on their way home from the school Halloween pageant. As Bob tries to kill the children, a stranger comes to their rescue, and in the struggle Jem’s arm is broken and Bob is stabbed by the knife he is wielding. The stranger is revealed as Boo Radley, and when he escorts them home, the meaning of Atticus’s message is understood. Maycomb’s Sheriff tells Atticus that he will say Bob Ewell fell on his own knife, rather than lauding Boo Radley as a hero. While originally taken aback, Atticus understands, as the Sheriff is doing exactly what he told Scout, Jem and Dill to do. The reason Boo hid away was because he was extremely shy, and telling the town of his actions would draw attention to him, something Radley would not like. The expression ‘not to kill a mockingbird’ means not to stop somebody doing something they are perfectly content with, if it does no harm to anybody else. Killing a mockingbird would be stopping it from happily soaring high on the wind, and as Boo Radley is perfectly happy in his house, showing him off to the rest of Maycomb would be, as Atticus says, like killing a mockingbird.

The play sheds light on issues such as the aforementioned racial injustice, but also the way we treat others. It advises us to ‘put ourselves in their shoes’ before we take action, and that hopefully that will make the world a better place for everyone.

Arran, Joesph Rowntree School

 

In this Theatre Royal production we have a classic tale transformed into theatrical art. This play astounds me for its attention to detail within the characters and its portrayal of the story.
We lay our scene in Maycombe, Alabama:  a small town with few inhabitants.  Atticus the Lawyer lives with his two children Jean-Louise and Jem in a place where tension is running high over a black man convicted of raping a white girl.  Atticus is does what he thinks is right and defends the man who he believes is innocent.  The whole town is against him, running on old prejudice against black people.  It is a story of courage and standing up for what is right and it is done in the best way possible, on stage.  The characters are accurate and likeable and you find yourself (as Atticus puts it) in their skin.  You feel their childish fear of the mysterious ‘Boo’ Radley; you feel the tension in the courthouse and the fear of walking home in pitch blackness.  The interaction between the children is just superb – the relationship being not so unfamiliar to so many of us.  They play beautifully on stage and converse wonderfully with Atticus, their maid and others.  Their portrayals are simply spellbinding to watch.  However we must not forget Atticus.  Played by Duncan Preston (probably best known for his role in Emmerdale) he is a man who teats everyone equally and has very strong opinions about right and wrong.  This is seen in his attitude to his children and to people in court. When Tom Robinson, a black farmhand, is accused of the rape of a white girl, Atticus steps up as his defendant.  He does not see this as just an argument of guilt, but of discrimination of black men and women.  This sets the tension and from this many things unfold.   Performed as a memory play through the eyes of an older Scout, this is a joy to watch and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Jeremey, Joseph Rowntree School

Understanding actors

One of the reasons Pinter was such a great writer was because he understood actors so well. In Victoria Station he sets two characters in different places but on the same stage. Each is rooted to a chair, trapped in their workplace, with no where to go. Lost in time and space, they talk across the airwaves. It is a play of extremes – comedy as the taxi driver speaks at cross purposes to his controller, conflict as one seeks to dicate whilst the other procrastinates, and tragedy as we watch two hazy figures ‘try to make sense’ out of their lives.

When you stage any conversation between two actors, the temptation is to have them move about and create visual interest. Actually the oppposite is true. Keep an actor still and they become far more interesting, you start looking for clues. What are they thinking? Where are they? Why are they there? Pinter wrote this stillness into the script. He also knew that the the most credible acting stems from listening. By placing actors in a situation where eye contact is impossible, he makes listening even more important. And that is what makes this play both a joy and a challenge for an actor to perform.

We have worked hard on looking for the rhythm in the language. The lines must be perfect. Paraphrase and you lose the rhythm and your way. We have played with words in space – the actors have delivered lines from different rooms or back to back with each other. And we have watched each other, examining what interests you when someone is seemingly doing nothing.

Paul Osborne

Directing Pinter

The Black And White is an innocent enough looking piece. Just three and a half pages long, it is a peek into the lives of two old women sat in an all night cafe. Typically Pinter, it is wonderfully ambiguous. He provides no clues as to where the women have come from nor where they are going, so how do you play the scene? You most definitely do not force an interpretation on the piece. As a director of Pinter one of your core responsibilities is to maintain the ambiguity for the audience to relish. To do otherwise is to serve up a doughnut having sucked out the jam! But equally, to just say the lines and slurp the soup makes for a bland offering. The challenge was to walk the tightrope between; to trust the words and to find the emotional symphony beneath – the humour and the pathos… it may be short, but what a rich symphony it is when you listen properly!
Initially I gave the actors just two directions. Firstly, one woman was a gannet and the other a sparrow. Enough to establish, critically, two distinct characters from the outset. Secondly, that they frequently annoyed each other, but if one of them ever died, the other would be lost. This gave motivation both for those moments of edginess and for those hints of friendship that are scattered through the script. With that it was straight onto the rehearsal floor as this is definitely a piece to be felt rather than analysed.
Then we just had fun! We played with it, felt it, moulded it, overplayed it, pulled it back. It is a compact script. Virtually every line, every pause and every action had to be explored for its motivation, its timing, its magnitude … and then fine tuned again and again until the whole was smooth. If we’ve got it right, the audience will leave thinking how simple a piece it is!

David Martin

To Kill a Mockingbird – Assistant Director’s Blog 4

As a matter of course, the first few days of Production week are hectic. A good hectic, not a bad hectic. It is busy, busy, busy. Lots of things to do, lots of hard work being done by all involved. Everybody is pulling together.

Let me paint you a picture. Lighting and sound are busy in the Dress Circle “plotting” (finalising the order and time in which things happen.) The actors are being very patient, waiting to be called on stage to say little bits of lines which correspond with lighting and sound. The stage crew are busy hammering, banging and painting little bits of scenery.

The set went into the theatre on Monday and it looks brilliant. No matter how much you imagine it, your imagined version never quite compares, in size or beauty, to the real thing.

Slowly but surely, very productive and very exciting!

JRW

To Kill a Mockingbird – Assistant Director’s Blog 3

It’s 1935 and it’s Maycomb, Alabama… Step by step

Week 3: As we move closer towards production week, it is really interesting to watch the actors shape their performances. This is a really personal thing, each to their own, and in their own time. They draw on the reserves of their craft. They build their voices for when we move into the theatre. They finalise the traits of their characters.

Just as the actors prepare, new layers are being added to the production all the time. At the end of last week, fight director Liam Evans-Ford choreographed the main “action” sequence. Stage fights have to be worked out accurately, to make sure that everything is done as safely as possible (although it still looks great!) We have also been doing some multimedia work – trailers, interviews and some other bits and pieces (wait and see).

These activities have brought a new energy and drive to rehearsals. Perhaps it’s the energy which comes from the knowledge that in just over a weeks time, we’ll be opening. We have now had several “runs” (going through the play from beginning to end without stopping). Each time there are fewer and fewer notes to give the actors. There are one or two things that still need to be worked on. As lighting and sound are added, timings will need to be adapted slightly. Aspects of the set may need to be shifted. However, this is what next week will be about. Technical and dress rehearsals are when all the different aspects of a production come together properly for the first time. All the hard work will come to fruition. Lighting and sound add new layers – they give a fictional setting its reality; they mount, intensify or lessen an atmosphere. They split the space into new environments. In many respects, they give a piece of theatre its magic. The set has been constructed. As I write it is probably being transferred into the space.

On Friday 4th, Composer Christopher Madin brought in some of the music for us to listen to. The excitement was intense as we went through the score. It was almost like the heartbeat of the production. We could hear the story unfolding. We were then able to incorporate it into some of the rehearsal in the afternoon.

There was an extra rehearsal on Saturday. Once again we ran the show from beginning to end without stopping (well, there were cups of tea at the interval). Lighting designer Richard G. Jones was in attendance, as well as representatives from The Touring Consortium Theatre Company, and YTR Production Department. As a play develops, there are always little changes along the way, and it was useful for everybody to see the play in its “final” form.

Some of you may be wondering what goes on during a professional production week. Well, to be honest every show varies. However, as a basic rule of thumb, all of the technical elements (costumes, lights, sound, and makeup) are present during rehearsal for the first time. We’ll rehearse the show with all of these elements in place. The actors will get used to working with the set and in their costumes. The production crew will work to solve unexpected problems. The director will see how everything comes together as an artistic whole. Practical problems will probably be discovered. For example, an actor may report that their costume restricts their movement. A hand prop may be too awkward. A set door that performed fine the week before may bang shut too loudly now that there are live microphones on the stage. This is the nature of the beast; essentially it’s there to highlight puzzles which need solving.

So then, with next week likely to be a mixture of painting, lighting, filming and construction, my episode next week will probably be shorter than usual, or at least a little more irregular. Whatever the case, it’ll reach you step by step.

JRW