Discuss One Production You Have Seen Where the Performers Have Made a Positive Impact on the Audience – Relate to the Performances of Two Performers.
The play I am going to discuss is “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. I saw this at the Lowry Centre in Manchester. The cast consisted of 8 actors, 2 of which particularly stood out to me and captivated the audience for the duration of the performance.
The play is based in Maycomb County, a small town in the Southern states of the U.S. in the 20th Century. It is a very racially prejudice society and one of the biggest underlying themes in the play is racism. One of the characters I am going to be discussing is Atticus Finch, and elderly lawyer and a lifelong citizen of Maycomb County. The whole play is based on Atticus’s court case, which happens to be defending a Black man – Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white girl. The other actor who particularly stood out to me was Scout Finch, Atticus’s daughter. In this essay I will be discussing these actors and how they impressed me throughout the play.
The first actor I am referring to is Scout Finch, in the first scene. The stage is empty apart from an old wagon tipped up in the corner and gravel littering the floor. The whole cast comes on stage and starts singing gospel music. This really sets an atmosphere, and really makes you feel like you are there, with them.
Scout is in the middle of the cast, and whilst the other actors are singing, she takes a step out in front of the cast and begins to speak. She speaks in a very high-pitched southern American voice, which is perfectly fitting to the play, as Scout is only eight years old. Scout is wearing a pair of worn dungarees, and she keeps her hands firmly gripped onto the straps of her dungarees, making her look naïve and vulnerable. She looks nervous as she speaks, you can tell this by the way that she fiddles with her fingers, and runs her hands up and down the straps as she talks. She turns her feet inward when she talks and I think this added to the scene in a massive way, as this is exactly how an eight year old would act if they were talking in front of the rest of their town. The use of space whilst Scout is singing is great, as the whole cast singing in the background shows that all the members of their village are singing together, in harmony. When Scout steps out in front of them it shows that she is independent girl who doesn’t mind telling everyone how she feels. Scout looks happy whilst she is talking - she is smiling and wide-eyed. This proves to the audience that Scout is a very good public speaker and likes people to hear what she’s saying. Scout recites briefly her life story, like where she grew up, who she’s friends with and what she does in her spare time. By looking happy whilst saying this she is showing us that she is happy with her life.
