"This case is as simple as black and white," says Atticus Finch, defending a black man he knows is going to be unjustly convicted of raping a white woman.
The line encapsulates everything that makes To Kill a Mockingbird so powerful: it's so true yet so untrue; so stark yet so complicated.
Auckland Theatre Company's compelling production of this American classic thrives on this conflict and contrast.
Director Colin McColl approaches the daunting task of presenting one of the world's most-loved stories with admirable restraint, guiding his talented cast through a powerful, affecting performance.
Simon Prast shines as Atticus Finch: an awkward, detached father but a distinguished, assured lawyer whose blindness to race sets him apart and above from most of the rest of his town. (For now, at least: the recently released Go Set a Watchman portrays an unsettlingly different Atticus some years in the future. Thankfully we needn't concern ourselves with this.)
Simon Prast (L) and the company of Auckland Theatre Company's To Kill a Mockingbird (Photo: Michael Smith Photography)
What the play really lacks, which made Harper Lee's original 1960 novel so potent, is the intensity of experiencing the story through the eyes of Atticus' young daughter Scout. ATC has dispensed with the stage adaptation's often-criticised use of an adult Scout as narrator, but the alternative still lacks some of the heart-rending innocence of the book.
That said, Scout (played brilliantly on opening night by 10-year-old Billie McKessar) remains the plucky, optimistic heroine we walk alongside as she experiences the racism and injustice on her doorstep.
Other notable performances come from James Maeva as the accused rapist Tom Robinson, Scott Wills as the despicable Bob Ewell, Hera Dunleavy as motherly Maude Atkinson and Kevin Keys as Sheriff Heck Tate.
Peter Daube's touching appearance as Arthur (Boo) Radley is diminished somewhat by his dual casting as prosecution lawyer Mr Gilmer. But Radley's characterisation is another shortcoming of the adaptation. Described in the novel as a "malevolent phantom" whose true personality is gradually revealed at several key points throughout the story, on stage he is merely talked about until his grand reveal at the play's climax, making Scout's realisation about him far less dramatic.
Ian Mune as Judge Taylor (Photo: Michael Smith Photography)
The play's structure also sees the beginning of Act One bogged down in exposition, but once Tom Robinson's court trial begins the audience is hanging on to every word.
It is a wonderful experience to see this play in the Civic Theatre, and the production has no trouble filling the cavernous space.
Andrew Foster's set design draws inspiration from the novel's gothic environment but represents it with a series of hanging wooden rods, which throw angular shadows when combined with Bryan Caldwell's lighting. They reinforce tension: the poles are obstacles which divide, yet at the same time they waver and can be manipulated. John Gibson's sound design completes the picture of a small town on the brink of all-out catastrophe.
Classic stories become that way because they continue to resonate with contemporary readers. ATC allows To Kill a Mockingbird another way to do just that.
To Kill a Mockingbird, Civic Theatre Auckland, until May 22.
Reviewed by Kim Choe/Newshub.