Walking Out on Aaron Sorkin
Ditching 'To Kill a Mockingbird' After the First Act
As the lights came up for intermission - midway through the Aaron Sorkin penned ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ - my friend turned to me with an expression that was undeniable.
We both laughed - because we knew we were in agreement. It was time to ditch this play and get out onto the London streets before the start of the second act.
I’m not really a theatre person. I struggle to pay attention. It’s always been this way. With a movie - I buy into the reality of what I’m watching. With a play, I’m always aware it’s actors standing on some planks of wood delivering words in the order they’ve been told to say them. Something in my brain just can’t connect.
But when Sorkin is involved, or if someone from ‘The West Wing’ is in a play, I’ll go. I saw Rob Lowe in ‘A Few Good Men’ (fantastic!) and saw Joshua Malina in ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank,’ (very good!) and saw Speed the Plow with Richard Schiff (it was awful: Lindsay Lohan had to have her lines yelled to her from the corner of the stage).
And I saw ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in New York, with Jeff Daniels. That time, I didn’t walk out, which complicates the narrative here.
Why did my friend and I know we both wanted to leave before even saying a word to each other?
Simple answer: the play wasn’t very good.
But why?
We tried to figure that out during the second half of the play. The actors were up on stage doing their thing again and we were strolling through Chinatown and down towards Piccadilly Circus trying to analyse why we left.
The first problem was the accents. I don’t know who the actors are but I’m pretty sure if I Google them they won’t be Americans. So they were doing ‘Southern’ accents but each of them was a different stereotype and yet none of them sounded like a real person.
It was jarring from the word go.
And the dialogue just didn’t work. Which is CRAZY for me to say about an Aaron Sorkin project because I adore pretty much every word he’s ever typed.
But again, maybe it was the acting.
None of the performances rang true and none of them made me connect to what I was watching.
Did I love the play when I saw it in New York?
Well I didn’t walk out.
I wasn’t in love with it either. But then I’m not always a period guy. Have a bunch of people sitting around with weird accents pretending it’s 1934 and there’s a fair chance I’ll fall asleep.
But when I saw it in New York, it was Jeff Daniels. He was riveting. He had gravitas and power. Much like he did in ‘The Newsroom.’ Perfectly cast.
The best part of tonight was stepping out of the theatre an hour early to go walking and talking with a friend. Those are always the best moments - when you ditch the thing you were meant to do and instead do the thing you want to do.
I’ll always be there for Aaron Sorkin projects. I think he’s one of the best writers alive and next time he has a play in town I’ll probably be there.
On this particular night, it didn’t click. But that’s okay. We don’t love an artist - or an art form - because brilliance is guaranteed. We love it for the possibilities.