Home > Theater Reviews > Archives > 2007 > September > 20
Thursday, September 20, 2007
‘Mockingbird’ @ Theatrical Outfit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B- 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Through Oct. 7. $30. Theatrical Outfit, Balzer Theater at Herren’s, 84 Luckie St. N.W. 678-528-1500. Bottom line: Doesn’t sing.
The big discovery coming out of Theatrical Outfit’s new production of “To Kill A Mockingbird” has nothing to do with Tom Key’s Atticus Finch or Carolyn Cook’s take on the adult version of Harper Lee’s beloved Scout. No, siree, Bob.
The performance that ought to have these vaunted Atlanta thespians watching their backs comes from a scene-stealing 9-year-old tyke named Tendal Mann. Wearing a bowtie and knickers, speaking with an authentic Southern lisp that would do his Capote-based character proud, this bean-sprout of a boy virtually skips away with director Rosemary Newcott’s staging of Christopher Sergel’s adaptation.
Smart, ironic and very, very cute, he’s the real Dill.
But it’s going to take a lot more than adorable children and ambitious sets to persuade me that Lee’s famous novel of initiation is anything more than an overrated piece of sentimental Southern Gothic weirdness. With its mysterious bogeyman (Boo Radley), evil racist witch (Mrs. Dubose) and crusading superhero (Atticus), Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning story is a socially conscious fairy tale that’s provided invaluable lessons on courage and justice to several generations of readers.
A really good piece of juvenile literature to be sure, “Mockingbird” comes off here as an inert evening of theater — a confusing mixture of children’s material in the first act and adult themes in the second. What redeems this uneven experience are a handful of spot-on character-acting turns, including a devastating performance by Eric Moore as accused rapist Tom Robinson.
Donna Biscoe is wonderful but underused as Calpurnia. Alex Van and Veronika Duerr are by turns amusing and despicable as redneck Bob Ewell and his daughter, Mayella. And Susan Shalhoub Larkin’s Mrs. Dubose is a deliciously wicked mixture of Joan Plowright and Mary Nell Santacroce.
In the leading roles, Cook and Key give performances that are impressively measured and crisp, but they kind of fade into the sprawling small-town canvas. Key seems to be holding back on purpose, and his Gregory Peck moment never comes.
Forty years after its publication, “Mockingbird” continues to have such a cult following that “Harper” has become a popular name for girls. Scout, Jem and Dill are indelible literary creations. Even mediocre productions have built-in cheering squads. Too bad, then, that this “Mockingbird” never sings.
Young Tendal, however, is another story. When this Charles Baker “Dill” Harris arrives in Maycom, the socially savvy kid hands out his own cards. For casting agents everywhere, Tendal might consider doing the same.
‘God’s Man in Texas’ @ Georgia Ensemble
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. “God’s Man in Texas.” Grade: C+. 8 p.m. tonight-Saturday. 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday. $23-$33. Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest St., Roswell. 770-641-1260, get.org. Bottom line: Few grace notes.
“God’s Man in Texas” has relocated to Roswell, where David Rambo’s commentary on the mega-church phenomenon is running like a long-winded sermon that takes forever to say “Amen.”
Directed by Robert Farley as the 15th season opener of his Georgia Ensemble Theatre, “God’s Man” is a three-hander with mechanically clunky scenery and a narrative that has all the immediacy of the Second Coming.
That said, it would be a grievous sin of omission to overlook Clayton Corzatte, a top-drawer Broadway trouper who has trod the boards with everyone from Helen Hayes and Katharine Hepburn to Bert Lahr and Uta Hagen.
In Rambo’s study of megalomania and paternity, Corzatte delivers a masterfully calibrated turn as Dr. Philip Gottschall, the 81-year-old leader of a Houston-based Southern Baptist empire who comes across like a combination of King Lear, Richard Nixon and Billy Graham. (Or is it Oral Roberts?)
Gottschall, a friend of the Bush clan and the kind of pulpit bull who keeps his acolytes quaking in their robes, is in complete denial about his inevitable loss of power. If God doesn’t strike him dead, looks like the unauthorized search committee will. Can you say “paranoid”?
But the old prune’s fears are assuaged — temporarily, at least — when a gallant young evangelical from San Antone is chosen as his co-pastor. Dr. Jeremiah Mears (Mark Kincaid) calms the waters with his homespun style and heartfelt testimony.
Will the old conservative zealot find the son he never had in the fatherless newcomer? Will it end in victory or bitterness? After meandering his way into a dramatic dead-end, the playwright tries to back out of the corner with an 11th-hour revelation involving Gottschall’s chief lackey, Hugo Taney (played with annoying tediousness by Barry Stoltze).
Ultimately, “God’s Man in Texas” offers little in the way of emotional sustenance or humor. Kincaid finds the charm and charisma of his character, but he tests the audience’s generosity with that prolonged final benediction.
At the end of the show, I actually heard one patron ask another sarcastically, “Don’t you want to go back and listen a little longer?” No way, fellas. Pass that collection plate on by, and save your change for the toll booth.
