To Kill a Mockingbird

★★★★★

It’s the right thing to see

Birmingham Hippodrome all this week

All rise for this powerful production of To Kill a Mockingbird. Subtlety pitched and catching you unawares, the gentle pacing feels like stepping into the heat of a long summer’s day, lulling us into a sense of ease—yet we remain alert, knowing that, in our role as jury in the trial of Tom Robinson, one careless moment could burn us.

The audience is implicitly positioned as the jury, symbolised by the empty bench, but this is made unmistakably clear in Atticus Finch’s final defence, delivered directly to us as a plea to our collective dignity.

Patrick O’Kane plays Atticus Finch with a sharpness and moral drive that is both compelling and humane, effortlessly drawing us into his role as the principled father-hero. Anna Munden is bright, buoyant, and pacey as Scout, anchoring the story with youthful energy. Stephen Boxer brings dependable authority to Judge Taylor, while Dylan Malyn shines with infectious energy and expertly judged comic timing in his professional stage debut. Under Serena Hill’s assured casting, the characters feel as though they have stepped directly from the pages of Harper Lee’s novel onto the stage.

This production honours the weight of the classic text while Aaron Sorkin’s reimagining subtly elevates previously silent voices, pushing us to interrogate our own ideas of justice and prejudice. Most startling is the decision to root the courtroom’s antagonistic voices—particularly Bob Ewell’s—in modern-day racism, using language taken verbatim from the right-wing website Breitbart. This removes any comfortable distance: these are not prejudices of the past, but living, racist voices that demand confrontation today.

Book your seat in the courtroom. It’s the right thing to do.

Ben Castle