By: Charlotte Dong

On Thursday, I went to watch the To Kill a Mockingbird play. The play is based on the classic book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This novel is about the story of the experiences of the siblings Scout and Jem while living in Alabama. Their father, Atticus Finch, defends a black man accused of rape.

Before going to watch the play, I read the book beforehand so I could understand the play. I procrastinated on reading the book until there were only three days until I would be watching the play. I used audiobook for most of the book and YouTube summaries to understand chapters I didn’t understand well. The book was pretty good, but some of the chapters were boring. Others were more interesting such as the court case and the ending.

The play perfectly executed the main scenes (the court and ending scene). But the book’s first part, Scout, Jem, and Dill’s childhood, was barely enacted. They introduce the play with Scout, Jem, and Dill narrating Robert Ewell falling on his knife and then periodically transitioning to the court case. The play also illustrates the racism that was happening during that period.

Despite the play’s serious tone and sadness, there were also jokes thrown around, mainly by Calpurnia, the Finch family cook. She was one of my favorite characters.

Overall, the play was terrific! The actors did a fantastic job at portraying the characters. Many people despised the Ewells; some even booed at them during the curtain call.

After watching the play and reading the book, I plan on watching the movie next. I’ve been told the film was terrific, so I look forward to watching the movie when I have free time.