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SINGAPORE : Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Harper Lee, "To Kill A Mockingbird", is one of the most influential books of all time. And come August 14, a new stage production of this classic will be performed in Singapore’s Jubilee Hall.
Producer Sharon Ang who studied “To Kill A Mockingbird” for her GCE “O” Level exams, decided to do this play because the story is one that is close to her heart.
Though she’s taken the main themes out of the original setting - which is in the American South - and given it a more universal feel, the issues are still relevant today.
“When I read ‘Mockingbird’, the first thing that comes up would be the black and white issue but if you look deeper into it, it’s actually about prejudice and ignorance which runs every where in every society. I think it’s relevant to everyone of us,” said Ang.
Theatre veteran Gerald Chew plays the main character Atticus Finch, an upright and courageous lawyer assigned to defend Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a young white woman. Though the late Gregory Peck picked up an Academy Award for his portrayal as Atticus in the 1962 movie with the same title, Chew did not try to “replicate it” but instead focused on “what makes this situation happen and what he faces”.
For Pavanjeet Singh who plays the helpless Robinson facing a biased all-white jury, his is a role that requires a “huge imaginative leap”, “Tom Robinson goes on trial for his life, and I’ve never been on trial for my life so I don’t know... just to go to that level of fear and knowing that role is in itself a challenge.”
“I’m still not satisfied with how far I’ve taken the character. I think I can take it a lot further, so it’s just pushing it, making it more believable, making it more real,” he added. "'To Kill A Mockingbird' is a literary classic, you want to live up to the legend of the book and so there’s that fear and excitement of putting it up truthfully and putting it up with its due respect.”
You be the judge as to whether the man and the part meet. “To Kill A Mockingbird” will be performed from August 14 to 23 at the Jubilee Hall at Raffles Hotel. Tickets are available from SISTIC.
- CNA/il
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