{"id":726447,"date":"2026-01-28T13:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/726447\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T13:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:51:13","slug":"review-to-kill-a-mockingbird-lyceum-theatre-sheffield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/726447\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: To Kill A Mockingbird, Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRating
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tUnmissable! \n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

A remarkable adaptation with superb performances all round, giving this seminal novel new relevance for today’s audiences. <\/p>\n

\t<\/strong><\/p>\n

This classic novel was written in the 1960s about small town Alabama in the 1930s. It is a place of church-going racists. An innocent black man is accused of raping a white woman and principled defence lawyer Atticus Finch does his best to convince a biased white jury of the truth. In the novel, the story is told through\u00a0the eyes of Atticus\u2019 tomboy daughter Scout. In the adaptation, she is\u00a0assisted\u00a0by her older brother\u00a0Jem\u00a0and their friend Dill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scout,\u00a0Jem\u00a0and Dill are children played\u00a0very\u00a0convincingly by adults\u00a0Anna Munden, Gabriel\u00a0Scott<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Dylan Malyn.\u00a0<\/strong>They are narrators to the action telling the story in a child-like,\u00a0forthright way,\u00a0stepping out of the action at times to do so. They set the context for the audience breaking the fourth wall regularly, with directness and humour.\u00a0The banter between them is always believable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their father, Atticus, is played by\u00a0Richard Coyle<\/strong>\u00a0who is simply excellent\u00a0in the role. He encourages his children to respect everyone and take time to understand them. He is an honourable man, the personification of integrity, but this\u00a0is also his flaw\u2014he tries to find the good in everyone and finds excuses for some unforgivable behaviour. His children totally respect him but find this frustrating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is never any doubt that the black man accused of rape, Tom Robinson (perfectly\u00a0played by\u00a0Aaron\u00a0Shosanya<\/strong>),\u00a0is innocent. From the start we know that the crime was committed by a\u00a0left-handed\u00a0man and Tom\u2019s left hand is disabled. The victim\u2019s violent father is the guilty party. This is clearly\u00a0demonstrated\u00a0to the court by Atticus. The contrast between the respectful Robinson and his accusers, loud mouthed Bob Ewell (Oscar Pearce<\/strong>)\u00a0and his nervous daughter Mayella (Evie Hargreaves<\/strong>),\u00a0is highlighted in the courtroom.\u00a0Only a racist jury could find him guilty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Writer\u00a0Aaron Sorkin<\/strong>\u00a0says that the racist vitriol spoken by Ewell comes word for word from Breitbart, a US news and opinion website, during Donald Trump\u2019s first term. This highlights the play\u2019s relevance to modern America\u00a0where sadly such views still exist. In\u00a0addition,\u00a0Sorkin has given his black characters a voice they\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have in the novel, especially Atticus\u2019 housekeeper, Calpurnia (Andrea Davy<\/strong>),\u00a0who speaks for all the black townsfolk when she says she\u00a0shouldn\u2019t\u00a0need to be grateful when a white man does the right thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The action\u00a0mainly takes\u00a0place in the courthouse or Atticus\u2019\u00a0porch,\u00a0and the many set changes are\u00a0mesmerising as items\u00a0leave and arrive in smooth, perfectly timed choreography that becomes part of the on-stage action.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0very slick and clever.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The power of this play is palpable. It is totally absorbing,\u00a0edge of the seat intensity. The\u00a0atmosphere in the theatre when Atticus sits outside the jailhouse ready to protect Robinson from a lynch mob is tangible. As hooded Ku Klux Klan townsfolk silently appear around him, it is\u00a0actually terrifying. The tension is only lifted when Scout appears\u00a0and recognises one of their voices and innocently chats to him about how Atticus helped his business and that she is in school with his son. The deflated man removes his hood, they all leave and the audience can breathe again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I left it felt as though\u00a0their world was\u00a0still continuing\u00a0even though I was no longer watching. It never feels like actors telling a story, every\u00a0single\u00a0performance is perfectly judged.\u00a0The writing and direction\u00a0are\u00a0stunning.\u00a0Such power is the magic of theatre at its\u00a0very best.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adapted by:\u00a0Aaron Sorkin<\/strong>\u00a0
Directed by:\u00a0Bartlett Sher<\/strong>\u00a0
Set designed by:\u00a0Miriam Buether<\/strong>\u00a0
Costumes designed by:\u00a0Ann Roth<\/strong>\u00a0
Lighting designed by:\u00a0Jennifer Tipton<\/strong>\u00a0
Sound designed by:\u00a0Scott Lehrer<\/strong>\u00a0
Composer:\u00a0Adam\u00a0Guettel<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

To Kill A Mockingbird plays at the Lyceum Theatre until Saturday 7 February, before continuing its tour across the UK & Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rating Unmissable! A remarkable adaptation with superb performances all round, giving this seminal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8817],"tags":[216289,69804,216290,203115,748,216291,393,216292,216293,4884,130334,216294,216295,87889,1620,147387,15973,16,15],"class_list":["post-726447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sheffield","tag-aaron-shosanya","tag-aaron-sorkin","tag-anna-munden","tag-bartlett-sher","tag-britain","tag-dylan-mylan","tag-england","tag-evie-hargreaves","tag-gabriel-scott","tag-great-britain","tag-harper-lee","tag-lyceum-theatre-sheffield","tag-oscar-pearce","tag-richard-coyle","tag-sheffield","tag-to-kill-a-mockingbird","tag-tour","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115973055107970870","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}