MMT's 'Mockingbird' Outstanding

Because Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" is the perfect novel (and my favorite American work), it is with considerable caution that I approach a new version of it. Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke opened its latest version of the classic this week and I am delighted with the result.

The basic story is there, but there are nuances that fit nicely. This is a play that has been a movie that cannot be equaled and has had some nice revivals on stage, so MMT was not tackling the impossible.

When you have characters like Atticus Finch (the guy every lawyer in America wants to be), the reptilian redneck racist Bob Ewell and Scout, the little girl we all want to take home, you have started on third base and all you need is a single to score. MMT has a hit

My grandgirl Mac and I at last night's performance. 

with this version and it begins and ends with the performance of Ginger Poole as the adult Scout, the narrator of the story.

Poole, who has been the creative director for MMT for years, but is leaving that post, ties everything together as she wanders throughout the production, commenting and weaving it all together.

This production is noteworthy, as well, because it is Roanoke-centric. Many of the actors (who are competently directed by N.C. Seibel) are either Roanoke natives, people who have relocated here or MMT veterans. They include Virginia Tech graduate and professional actor Timothy Booth, the judge Larry Kufel, who moved to Roanoke in 2000, MMT Apprentice Keeley Morgan (as Mayella), Patrick Henry High student Anders Plunkett as Jem, the wonderful Calpurnia played by Akilah Ramsey, Scout played by Hidden valley Middle School student Amelia Raring, MMT vet Mary Jean Levin, Roanoke Valley theater veteran Chris Shepard and Jacob Wadstrom who plays Walter Cunningham.

Scenic Designer Jimmy Ray Ward, as always, excels and he is aided quite well by stage managers Peppy Biddy and Erin Markham with complex maneuvers.

This production will delight you. There is not a dead spot in the entire 2 1/2 hours of the play. Go see it and take your kids. They need the message (especially important these days when the book is being banned by nutjobs throughout the country) and they can learn to appreciate good theatre.