Timely new take on a classic tale

JEFFREY DAVIES speaks to Richard Coyle who is appearing in To Kill a Mockingbird at the Theatre Royal Bath

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Richard Coyle (Atticus Finch) in To Kill A Mockingbird Pic: Johan Persson

(Johan Persson)

SUCCESSFUL lawyer Atticus Finch encourages kindness and empathy in his children, but is pushed to the limits of these qualities himself when he resolves to uncover the truth in a town that seems determined to hide it.

The first ever UK and Ireland tour of Aaron Sorkin's riveting and critically-acclaimed Broadway and West End adaptation of Harper Lee's celebrated novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the seminal American story about racial injustice and childhood innocence, takes to the stage in the West Country next week directed by Bartlett Sher.

Set in 1934 Alabama, To Kill a Mockingbird was inspired by Harper Lee's own childhood, and has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, the novel was long at the top of the banned books list.

Celebrated stage and screen actor Richard Coyle [The Player Kings, Macbeth, Fantastic Beasts, Secrets of Dumbledore] returns to this iconic production as lawyer Atticus Finch, reprising the role he played to great critical acclaim in the 2022 West End production.

"A riveting and powerful hard-hitting stage adaptation." Praise indeed I remarked to Richard Coyle who plays the seminal role of Atticus Finch in this adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird which sold out in both America and the West End.

"It doesn't pull its punches but it does it with a great deal of elegance and grace," the Sheffield-born actor, 53, told me ahead of the drama's arrival in Bath, adding that Aaron Sorkin's adaptation is absolutely terrific.

"He's incorporated elements of the sequel, Go Set A Watchman, which is Harper Lee's second published novel. It was actually written before To Kill a Mockingbird and shelved for fifty years."

Richard's role as Atticus Finch was famously played in the 1962 Hollywood film by Gregory Peck.