To Kill a Mockingbird – review

Harper Lee's 1960 story of a young girl's growing understanding of the dark complexities of human nature is one of the most powerfully compassionate novels ever written. Set in racially segregated 1930s Alabama, it builds slowly towards the trial of a black man accused of raping a white girl. Events are seen through the eyes of "Scout" Finch, whose father has been appointed defence lawyer, looking back and remembering. In Christopher Sergel's outmoded 1970 adaptation the action is narrated by the grown-up Scout (vivid Jacqueline Wood) who watches and comments on her past. The result is that the chopped about story, half-told, half-shown, loses much of its dramatic impact – except in the outstanding interval-straddling trial scene (the most faithful to its original). Here, Damian Cruden's coolly stylish production (pale wooden structures, simultaneous back projections and filmically atmospheric music) condenses into terse, taut brilliance. Cornelius Macarthy, in particular, is magnificent as the innocent defendant, condemned for the colour of his skin.