Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
York Theatre Royal may seem quite a distance to travel for theatre when so much happens on campus but it is well worth the (in reality rather short) journey. Until 26th February the Main Stage is hosting the Touring Consortium Theatre Company’s production of To Kill A Mocking Bird. The play follows Harper Lee’s novel closely. The chronology and characters you expect are all there; with the addition of Scout as a grown women, ever present, observing the events of her childhood with the retrospective tone and adult perspective that the novel uses. This tale of racial prejudice and loss of innocence seen through the eyes of children is at times heart wrenching and haunting and also uncomfortably close to us in time and modern attitudes.
Damien Cruden, artistic director of York Theatre Royal for the past 13 years, directed this performance with expected attention to detail and excellent decisions throughout. His use of Jacqueline Wood as Jean Louise Scout (the grown up version) was deftly handled. Her constant presence onstage was always felt but never distracting, a difficult balance. Wood’s graceful movements through the rest of the action and poise at the edge of scenes contrasted well with her young self’s (Grace Rowe) more rambunctious and tomboyish gait. The moments of unison and connection between Wood and Rowe were understated and used effectively.
A requirement of To Kill A Mockingbird is to make it clear that we are in Arizona. Voice and Dialect Coach Caroline Hetherington did a lot of good work with the cast to create sustained and convincing accents from most the cast. A couple of the cast did clearly struggle with accents sometimes slipping closer to Australian and Judge Taylor (Robert Pickavance) unfortunately sounding closest to Scottish, but accents were generally good.
The dry heat of Arizona was also conveyed well through Richard G Jones’ lighting design. I am not normally one to think much about lighting but in this case I must make an exception. From 5 minutes into the performance I was bowled over by the beauty and effectiveness of Jones’ design. It was elegantly simple and made excellent use of a cyclorama behind the wooden skeleton of a barn which created beautiful shadowing across the set. The colour palate used across the production was varied and effective; lighting through Boo Radley’s Tree’s branches added interest to the simple set. The bare wooden set also added to the dry barrenness of an Arizonian town and had many movable sections which were well used. Liam Doona designed this set and the costumes which were all excellent. On such a simple set naturalistic acting needs to be of a very high quality. Duncan Preston (Emmerdale, Dinner Ladies and Acorn Antiques) as Atticus Finch was superb. The struggle to be honest with his children whilst trying to shield them from the evil of the world around him was subtlety portrayed. Atticus is tricky to portray and Preston shone in the role, a highlight was his speech to the jury.
Jaqueline Boatswain’s Calpurnia provided brilliant, believable comic relief and served as strong presence on stage to control the children. Excellent performances also came from Clare Corbett and Mark White as the yokels Mayella and Bob Ewell. White was detestable in all the ways you would want and Corbett conveyed the pain and fear essential to the sympathy you should have for Mayella due to her mental state. The twenty-strong ensemble were all impressive with Graeme Dalling, Tina Gray and Cornelius Macarthy deserving special note. Robin Simpson was unfortunately overblown in his portrayal of the prosecution lawyer Mr Gilmore. Simpson got a lot of laughs from the audience but was clearly playing for them in a way that jarred with the other performances on stage.
The highlight of the night however was Elexi Walker as Helen Robinson. Her reactions through the courtroom scene were skilfully done and grew in a carefully plotted crescendo to her first explosive cries out which had me in tears. The grief and pain of Helen was evident thanks to Walker’s performance and had a strong impact from a relatively small part.
Cruden’s direction created a wonderful and thought provoking evening of theatre which I highly recommend. You will be challenged to think about the prejudices that exist within the society around us and how you deal with these in yourself and others. You will be there in place of a jury throughout the courtroom scene; Preston and Pickavance both do excellent work to make sure you feel that pressure. It is up to you if you are willing to go and face up to the society around you.
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