To Kill A Mockingbird (2008), Review

Although the play adopts a very literal and largely uninspired approach to Harper Lee's classic text about prejudice in 1930s Alabama, I found it to be watchable nonetheless. Sure, the script had way too much narration / exposition – remember, students: theatre should be show not tell - and the whole production did have the trappings of a conventional assembly show (you can't put on a staging of a perennial O level text and not, at least subconsciously, have in mind your core audience to be secondary school Literature students), but the power of Lee's quietly moving narrative is just so strong that it powered through any of this stage adaptation's inadequacies. To be fair, this no-frills production (no actual props are used throughout the play, for example) was not without its own charm and its decision to include an adult Scout reflecting on her childhood did bring some poignancy to the story. The otherwise extremely uneven cast also boasted some nice performances, notably Gerald Chew who, while no Gregory Peck, was well-cast as Atticus Finch.