Broadway

 To Kill a Mockingbird

A Draft

Confession- I love the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. I have read it approximately 30 times and each time I do, I feel like I am reading it for the first time.  It is the perfect novel.  Every character, each word is perfection in action, and the themes are seamlessly woven together.  Every time I read it, I believe that Tom Robinson will be exonerated, and Atticus' closing arguments are like a soliloquy to my heart in a quiet and affirming way.  As I reflect on Sorkin's take on my favorite classic, I am struggling to separate my feelings about the novel and this divergent version as an entity in its own right.  

As I sat in the audience at the Shubert Theatre last night and watched my beloved storyline unfold, I felt a little like I do when I walk in to a class reunion.  I see all of my friends, we tell and retell all of the same stories, but another five or ten years later, we've all changed just a bit-  a little wiser, a little older and our world keeps turning.  Huddled up with my favorite civil rights attorney and watching To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway last night felt less like immersing my self in a greatest American novel ever written and more like a call to action.  Hearing the words "All rise" will never feel the same.  

Here's why... for what it's worth! (spoiler alert...Please do not read these bullets if you want to see the play and know that I feel like I need to see the play AGAIN to bat around some of these impressions a little bit more.  Yes, the irony of this statement is not lost on myself!  😆)

• The Aaron Sorkin play, directed by Bartlett Sher, version of To Kill A Mockingbird feels raw to me like the crying of Calpurnia when she hears the news of Tom Robinson's death.  
• I am haunted by Bob Ewell and the overt discussion of the klan and lynching Tom Robinson and Atticus Finch.  Seeing the two ropes the mob brought to the jail shocked me and my own shock disappointed me.  There is no happily ever after here.  I am not a fan of Lee's sequel Go Set A Watchman.  In fact, I was angry and outraged after reading the novel, but, perhaps, this is the effect of what Harper Lee was after.  The work of this novel has not been realized even in 2021. Sometimes, my outrage is misdirected and closes my senses to what I should be seeing, hearing and most importantly DOING!  
• I loved the fact that Link Deas and Boo Radley were played by the same character. POWERFUL!
• Ian and I talked a lot about use of music in the play.  The jury is still out.  
• The acting, and the set it was on, is stunning.  We loved the fact that the actors changed the set.  Those transitions smoothed out what felt like a speedy plot, and we were truly left breathless by the time we arrived at the curtain call.

Tonight is New Year's Eve, and although we celebrated the New Year when we were all together, I feel like I need a do-over after watching the play.  While my intentions focused on wellness and worship for 2022 are important, in some ways, I feel like I need to metaphorically burn the house to the ground and start again.  Maybe this year, buoyed by legit courage and grit to be the change I want to see in the world, I can resign from my patient evolutionary beliefs and placations that good always conquers evil, and embrace the bold and bright revolution brewing within.   ALL RISE!

(To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway FB page)