"Mockingbird" Still Soaring

Large-cast stage productions that aren’t musicals are rare indeed. Casting and moving around more than a half dozen players can be daunting, but for James Dunn, it’s all in a day’s work. Dunn has been directing for fifty years and has handled the Hollywood-sized Mountain Play for twenty-nine of them. A cast of seventeen would not keep him from presenting “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

In program notes, the Director writes that he read Harper Lee’s classic while recovering from the flu in 1961, the same year Lee received a Pulitzer for this heartfelt story from her childhood in Monroeville, Alabama. “I’ll never forget how moved I was,” says Dunn.

Lee, known as Scout in the play, lives with her brother Jem and her father, Atticus in a town where neighbors – for good or ill -- keep watch on each other. Serious conversations take place in the front yard, away from the hearing of children and the household help. In tribute to Harper Lee, Christopher Sergel’s adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” is revived and presented every year in Monroeville.

Sergel’s stage adaptation introduces the grownup Scout, Jean Louise Finch, who takes the audience back to the summer and fall of 1935 in the fictional Maycomb. Here a townsman brings a bag of hickory nuts in payment for Atticus’ legal services, and a visiting new kid, Dill, is warned about two of the neighbors, mean Mrs. Dubose across the street and the spooky Radleys, where Mr. Radley’s childlike grown son Boo lives, but is never seen. Odd tokens are left in the hollow tree, possibly from Boo. The children devise schemes to get him outside, but Atticus advises his children to “stand in Boo’s shoes” and leave him alone. At this point, the children, especially his adolescent son Jem, don’t have much respect for their father because Atticus doesn’t hunt, fish or play poker. This was, recalls Jean Louise, “a time of happy ignorance.”

A yard conversation changes all that. Judge Taylor asks Atticus Finch to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been charged with rape of a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. This charge leads Atticus to stand guard in the jail late at night, where he quietly confronts his fellow townsmen, intent on a lynching. The children, who’ve evaded their housekeeper, Calpurnia, see all this, and their innocence plays a part in cooling the heated crowd. Mary Ann Rodgers plays Jean Louise with loving nostalgia.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” offers strong scenes for both directors and actors. Steve Price as Atticus is deliberate and solid, a country lawyer in the best tradition. (Note: Steve Price grew up in Belvedere; he attended Redwood High and is the son of Ark writer, Jeanne Price.) The role of Scout is double-cast. We saw ten-year-old Brigid O’Brien, who seemed so natural in the part, she didn’t appear to be acting. As Scout’s big brother, Jem, Gerrit deBlaauw was protective with his sister, defensive with his dad.

In smaller roles, Alex Ross as the cigar-chomping judge, Melissa W. Bailey as the bedraggled and pitiful Mayella, Sumi Narendran as no-nonsense Calpurnia brought life to the script. (But can that nasty Mrs.Dubose really be Tiburon’s gracious Ann Ripley?)

Wendell Wilson plays the earnest Tom Robinson, aware of his danger, and young Layne Ulrich portrays Dill, the summer visitor. (In Harper Lee’s childhood, Dill was Truman Capote, a lifelong friend.)

Townspeople, including the mysterious Boo, are played by Jeffrey Taylor, Mark Toepfer, Ray Martin, Tom Hudgens, and Newton Harband. In court, Wood Lockhart portrays Mr. Gilmer, the prosecutor, Ray Martin is Heck Tate, and Frederick Lein is Mayella’s brutish father, Bob Ewell.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” will play at The Barn Theatre in the Marin Art & Garden Center through December 11, Thursdays through Sundays at 2 p.m. No performance on Thanksgiving. Ticket prices range from $17 to $25.

For complete information see www.rossvalleyplayers.com , and for reservations, please call 456-9555.