What an exciting prospect it is to watch a classic play adapted by a true Hollywood legend of screenwriting - Aaron Sorkin. He’s no stranger to this genre of busy courtrooms, channelling his signature style of fast-talking characters into a modern and energetic adaptation...
The place is a small town in Alabama. The time is 1934 and Atticus Finch (Richard Coyle) is the lawyer defending a black man falsely accused of raping a young woman. Atticus is a man of great moral character and he not only wants to uphold the law, he uses his experiences to teach his children lessons in integrity and seeing things from other people’s perspective. The play is full of courtroom tension and moral complexity.
Richard Coyle will be known to many from his performance in the early 2000s TV show Coupling. He left the show before the end of the run, fearing typecasting, if tonight’s performance is anything to go by (and it is) he perhaps needn’t have worried as he is a fantastic actor clearly capable of great things. His Finch is the best I’ve ever seen - having seen several iterations of the play over many years.
Coyle (reprising the role that he played in the West End run back in 2022) gives Finch area sense of humanity. He’s real and nuanced in his performance. Finch is thoughtful and caring with his children Scout (Anna Munden) and Jem (Gabriel Scott) and they produce fine performances too, full of intensity. Dylan Malyn also wins the hearts of the audience as Dill Harris and gets plenty of laughs from his witty insights into life.
Coyle as Finch is explosive in the courtroom, yet at times he is weary of life. He makes Finch feel real and you know that this character will never lose sight of the truth as he deals with the issues and emotions of empathy, justice and prejudice.
The children Scout, Jem, and Dill offer a family element to the play, balancing the courtroom intensity with moments of softer scenes. And where Scout normally takes on the full narration of the play (or the book) here we see that job spilt out between the three younger characters. Naturally they are played by adult actors, who do an excellent job.
blotting out the blight of racism somehow still continues to feel as urgent as it did back then
Supporting roles, including Calpurnia (Andrea Davy) and Tom Robinson (Aaron Shosanya), are given sharper voices in Sorkin’s adaptation, they don’t always get this highlight, but Sorkin puts them further forward in the mix and uses them to show the stakes of prejudice and justice. Davy as Calpurnia has two or three explosive scenes with Coyle’s Finch and Shosanya is magnificent as Robinson.
Sorkin has breathed new life into To Kill a Mockingbird, making it feel as vital and important as it was when Harper Lee first wrote it. And of course even decades later it’s sad to note that many of the issues of racism, justice, morality, and empathy still cause us difficulties across society and blotting out the blight of racism somehow still continues to feel as urgent as it did back then - albeit in a different guise.
To Kill a Mockingbird had long runs on Broadway and in the West End (as mentioned) and as spectacular as it must have been on those grand stages, this more intimate production at The Playhouse with its seating plan that offers great views from practically everywhere be it stalls or circle, brings the action close enough for every audience member to feel its searing impact.
An outstanding element of this production is the set design (and lighting), modular in form, pieces of set are brought on into stage to create the courtroom scenes, and the scenes at the Finch house, in a very inventive way.
Novels are loved across time, but few can lay claim to being as powerful as To Kill a Mockingbird - the story is as challenging as it is cherished. It is endlessly debated in both school classrooms and theatres and that’s what keeps it being performed. Sorkin’s adaptation keeps the pace of the play propulsive which makes it feel like it is flying by, and even at over two and a half hours, the play holds the audience’s attention - so compelling is the story.
It may have originally been published in 1960 (and later performed) and be focused on the racism of 1930s Alabama, but even in 2025 Harper Lee’s story still lands with startling force.
To Kill a Mockingbird is showing at Nottingham Playhouse from Wednesday 8 October to Saturday 18 October 2025.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
