To Kill a Mockingbird - Hartford Stage

"Stand up, Miss Jean Louise, your father is passing."

From the moment Charles Turner as Rev. Sykes said the words on stage tonight, tears were in my eyes and more often than not rolling down my cheeks.

Tonight I saw beautiful, relevant theater. Theater that told a story. Theater that reminded me in desperate times, desperate people can do horrible things. Many innocent people can be hurt along the way, and people who are affected by the actions of those desperate people - the survivors - will never be the same.

To see this story played out less than two months after the historical inauguration of the first African American president was a sign of how far we have come. To see this story played out in horrible economic times when people are becoming so desperate and angry; in a period of social peril where people are looking for who to blame and someone to take their anger out on; and in a time when people are still fighting for equality and respect in the eyes society and in the eyes of the court - that is a reminder of how far we have to go.

A good story told well is mighty powerful.

Tonight, for the first time in a long time, I watched a show alone - despite the sold out house, from that moment in the second act when that line was uttered it was just me and those actors on the stage.

Ironically with all the talk of adaptions in the last post, when the line was said the same exact moment in the movie of To Kill a Mockingbird popped into my head and my mind laid the image over the stage like a transparency. As Mathew Modine crossed the stage, he and Gregory Peck melded in my mind and I was brought back to the play and stage in front of me. And the power of great theatre reached into my heart and touched my soul.

Thank you to everyone involved in the production. I can not think of a better way to honor Horton Foote than with the dedication of this fine show to him.

I urge you to go see this wonderful show. That is if there are any tickets left - go to Hartford Stage.