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Singing with the mockingbirds at Stratford

By Robert W. Bethune

One reads a casting notice and says, "Ah, yes." So it is with Peter Donaldson as Atticus Finch in Stratford Festival's "To Kill A Mockingbird." His work in this role lives up to that expectation and more. As with Kent in "Lear," he shows us a man who lives on principle as on bedrock, not out of pride or for reputation, but out of conscience. His children puzzle him, his experience of human beings confuses him, but he knows the difference between right and wrong and he will not choose to do wrong.
You should not do "To Kill A Mockingbird" without a first-rate young performer as Scout. Abigail Winter-Culliford delivers admirable results. She is sweet, not saccharine, believably innocent yet believably tough; when she kicks out and connects with the knee of the leader of a lynch mob, you believe that the tough guy leaps back yelping. She is all of 11-years-old. She is an amazing young person.
Susan Schulman, the director, has given us music at key moments – spirituals, sung a cappella with heartrending beauty by members of the cast. The designers deliver an archetypal Southern atmosphere of rickety houses and Spanish moss that hangs off unseen trees of truly astonishing height.
This play is melodrama, and unashamed of it. It is overtly about a theme, injustice versus justice, and unashamed of that as well. We have every right to expect a company like Stratford to do this play with one hand tied behind its back, but that having been said, it is very satisfying to see the company do such a fine production, one that delivers everything it can and should without falling into the many temptations and traps inherent in the material.

'To Kill A Mockingbird'
Stratford Festival of Canada at the Avon Theatre. In repertory, Tues.-Sun., through Oct. 27. Tickets: $40-$108 Canadian. For information: 800-567-1600 or http://www.stratfordfestival.ca.

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