From To Kill a Mockingbird

Simon Mallett is trying not to think of Gregory Peck.

As the director of Workshop Theatre’s latest production, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mallett is certainly aware of the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee’s classic novel that stars Gregory Peck, but knows that any production worth its salt needs to find its own path. In the case of this canonical western novel, that’s no small task.

After all, every high school student in North America (save for those with coma-like napping abilities) has at least a passing familiarity with the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and its combination of a traditional coming-of-age story with seething racial prejudices in the American South. Set against the backdrop of the racially charged criminal trial of Tom Robinson, a black man charged with the rape of a white woman, the story’s use of its young female protagonist allows for an essential fusion of burgeoning self-awareness as well as a broader social understanding.

“So much of the story is ‘yes this is happening,’ but so much of it is that it’s being realized through Scout as she comes to realize more and more about the world she lives in,” Mallett says. “It speaks about the issues in a different way than it would if it was an adult-driven story.”

So while Christopher Sergel’s stage adaptation includes Jean Louise, Scout’s fully aged alter ego, the 22-person cast still includes three children in its most essential roles.

As to the play’s central message, embodied by Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, and his insistence on the need for understanding, Mallett sees the same resonant theme that has kept the book in generations of curriculums. Citing the recent election demonstrations by the Calgary Aryan Guard, he points out that while the bigotry outlined in Harper’s novel is as repugnant to us as it was for the novel’s young protagonist, the danger is no less real. “I wish the story had no place in our world,” he says. “I wish it (had no) resonance in contemporary society.

“I don’t think it’s at all necessary to impose contemporary relevance on the production,” he adds. “The story you’re telling is the same, set in the 1930s, so it’s about being respectful to that, allowing audiences to looking at this piece 75 years in the past and realize that in a way, we’ve come (far), but we’ve got a lot of the same problems.”

To Kill a Mockingbird runs from November 23 to December 1 at the Pumphouse’s Victor Mitchell Theatre. For tickets and information call 263-0079 or visit www.workshoptheatre.org.

IN THE FLESH

It may surprise readers to learn that Calgary theatre also provides non-period drama alternatives. Shocking, but true.

Combining alliteration and a marked similarity to the late, great and only certified analrapist (analyst and therapist) in television history (Arrested Development’s Tobias Fünke, for those inclined toward a more literal reading of analrapist), Coldwater Theatre will unleash sketch comedy that dares to stay clothed.

Never Nudes runs from November 28 to December 8 at the Pumphouse’s Joyce Doolittle Theatre. For tickets and information call 282-1303.

COMING HOME

I did try to ensure that no two Christopher Sergel adaptations would be staged within 300 kilometres of each other. You’ll have to believe me. And yet, with Rosebud Theatre’s production of Sergel’s adaptation of Earl Hamner Jr.’s The Homecoming, I can do little but point out that while one is a coming-of-age drama, the other is a sentimental Christmas story that comes with good ol’ home cooking.

I can only hope the clarification and/or fresh biscuits will be enough.

The Homecoming runs at Rosebud Theatre until December 22. For tickets and information, call 1-800-267-7553 or 403-677-2001, or visit www.rosebudtheatre.com.

FAST AND LOOSE WITH MOTHER GOOSE

Sleeping Beauty’s out like a light and the Brothers Grimm aren’t around to collect royalties, which can only mean that it’s time to play fast and loose with beloved tales.

The seats are free (with a call to your local library) and the stories are familiar. If postmodern pastiche and a free seat aren’t enough to persuade you to pack up your young in their winter finest and take them to the library, then clearly you’ve been cruelly nailed to your floorboards. Have no fear — the proper authorities have already been called.

Fractured Fairy Tales runs at various public libraries until November 25. For tickets and information call 230-2664 or visit www.cypt.ca.

POOKIE

“So, it’s a play about Pookie, the winged rabbit? Of Pookie Puts the World Right fame?”

“Yes.”

“And Santa Claus?”

“Yes.”

“And there are going to be cookies?”

“Oh yes.”

“…”

End a conversation with a mad dash toward Storybook’s Cookie Cabarets today! Pookie Meets Santa Claus runs from November 23 to December 16 at the Easterbrook Theatre. For tickets and information call 216-0808 or visit www.storybooktheatre.org.