[NEohioPAL] Great "To Kill A Mockingbird" Review at GLTG - in today's News-Herald

["Cindi" <cverbelun@xxxxxxxx>]

 Fred, PLEASE post this review on NEOhioPAL 

 

Here is our first "To Kill A Mockingbird" review - it's in today's News-Herald.   We  REALLY  hope you can come see us!

 

Take care,

Cindi (Verbelun) :-)

 

 

 

Lose Any Prejudice toward Another "Mockingbird"

 

Hot on the heels of Lakeland's production, GLTG's production worth seeing, too.

 

By: Bob Abelman

correspondent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

When you see a play for a second time within a four-month period, you hope either to witness an innovative interpretation, or see some stand-out individual performances.  The current staging of "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Geauga Lyric Theater Guild, following on the heals of Lakeland Community College's production, offers both.

 

Based on the Pulizer Prize winning novel by Harper Lee, "To Kill A Mockingbird" is set in the racially intolerant 1930s Alabama. It's a coming-of-age story about Scout Finch and her brother, Jem, as they watch their father valiantly defend an innocent black man against charges of sexually assaulting a white woman.

 

Both productions serve up Christopher Sergel's adaptation of Harper Lee's work, which removes Scout as a narrative voice and offers an abridged but wordy version of the narrative classic. Pierre-Jacques Brault, director of the GLTG production, embraces this minimalist approach by placing the show within a very simple set, where doors denote domicles, and assorted pieces of furniture are representative of the people who inhabit them.

 

This works beautifully at the small playhouse in Chardon, particularly because all 15 actors are sitting onstage throughout the performance and become part of the scenery. Players rise and spring into action on cue and fade back into the collective backdrop at the end of their scenes.

 

This innovative staging, aided by Pat Fagan's lighting design, gives a nice "Our Town" eerieness to the production, although actors occasionally need to awkwardly navigate around one another. It also allows black cast members to be a part of the white mob scene, which hints at the universal truths about what is right and what is wrong in people.

 

A minimalist set does not mean a less authentic set. The wood used to create the doors, door frames and flooring on the stage comes from a local home that was recently demolished. The house was built during the 1930s. The set could not be more authentic.

 

Neither could some of the performances in this production. Liz Jones  is an absolutely remarkable Scout. She thoroughly embraces the aggressive tomboy physicality that defines her character, seems genuinely inqusitive about the complex world around her, and is in the moment every moment she is on stage. Lincoln Sandham delivers and thoughtful and honest performance as Scout's brother. His gentility perfectly compliments young Jone's portrayal.

 

Cindi Verbelun is flat-out charming as ever-vigilant and observing Miss Maudie, the play's narrator. 

 

Bolstered by a corps of colorful neighbors, wonderfully depicted by Civia Wisner, Patricia Osredkar and others, Miss Maudie serves as a graceful conduit between this troubled town and the audience.

 

John Hazard is fine as the iconic everyman attorney Atticus Finch, though he lacks some of the debth and nuiance the difficult, textured role requires. Darryl Lewis more than makes up for this in his stirring portrayal of the falsely accused Tom Robinson. Nothing more effectively drives home the strong moral message of this play than seeing a man of significant physical stature reduced to little more than his integrity and quivering vulnerability.

 

Plays like "To Kill A Mockingbird" are always worth seeing. When done as well as this GLTG production, they are worth seeing again.

 

"To Kill A Mockingbird" continues through Feb. 10 in the Geauga Theater, 101 Water St., Chardon. For tickets, which at $10.00 for students and $12.00 for adults, (440) 286-2255 or visit www.geaugatheater.org .