To Kill A Mockingbird: Closer today than ever before

Why a performance of the US classic To Kill A Mockingbird in Bengaluru needed a "purely fictitious" disclaimer.

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THE disclaimer, read loudly before the start of the play, clarifying that the characters and events of the play are purely fictitious, did more to set To Kill A Mockingbird in context in Bengaluru, October 2023 than anything else may have.

Because, of course, why should such a disclaimer even be necessary for the performance of a US classic? The dangers of any public event in present-day India that hints at social inequality and injustice, hatred and bigotry, became manifest before the first line of the play.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee was presented to a full house on October 28 at the Chowdiah Hall in Bengaluru. Directed by Tahera, the play had Kenneth Gonsalves in the role of Atticus Finch, and Nishitha Sudershan as his daughter, Scout, with Sonali Dutta, Prithvi Selvaraj, Syed Saad and Sai Jayant among the other characters.

Calling on the audience to be members of a jury to reflect on what they would be witnessing, the play brought ample opportunity for them to consider what is happening off-stage as well.

Initial difficulties in getting used to the speech pattern of the characters in a Depression-era town from US's deep South settled down after the first ten minutes and one was better able to appreciate the dawning of new awareness and insights in the mind of Scout Finch.

At the beginning, she shows mild disappointment, even exasperation, with her father, Atticus, whose most sterling quality is described by his friend and neighbour Miss Maudie very simply as, "Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets."