‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ @ The Core Theatre

Photos courtesy of The Core Theatre

—Hannah Kneen

If you’ve ever wondered why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird, the cast and crew at The Core Theatre have an answer for you. Christopher Sergel’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird is playing until February 15th and if you’ve never seen or read it, you might want to hurry on over. It’s a classic for good reason, deftly dealing with a difficult subject with nuance and grace.

Mockingbird is seen largely through the eyes of children, lending the story a sort of innocence and purity of thought that lightens the heart. The action is seen in retrospective; as an adult, Scout Finch remembers and narrates events from her childhood in a small Mississippi town. The adult Scout (played by Kathleen McNamara) recalls vivid incidents and details, and gives us perspective on her father, the lawyer Atticus Finch (Eric Hanson), and his defense of a Black man named Tom Robinson (IJ Gordon) when she was a child.

Tom had been falsely accused of raping a young woman, and as he was Black and she was white and this was all happening in the 1930’s, was facing a hopeless situation. Atticus was the lawyer tasked with defending him against the charge. [Note that this play is set in the 1930’s and deals with racial issues. The language used may make some people uncomfortable, but is true to the era.] To his children, Atticus’ attitudes and decisions (clearly running against the views of much of the town) are something of a mystery.

While Adult Scout takes on the role of narrator, Young Scout (Madeline Martin), along with her brother Jem (Jens Gasper) and their friend Dill (Jaxon Stewert), carries the thread of the story. Madeline Martin makes a very impressive Young Scout, demonstrating that perfect blend of humor and forthrightness only found in precocious children. All three of the child actors do a great job with a difficult play. The trio are curious about Atticus’s trial and the way it stirs up their neighborhood. Jem and Scout’s confusion about his strange ways motivate their actions throughout the story.

Eric Hanson’s performance as Atticus is solid, and he portrays just enough almost-mythical steadiness to be not just an uncommonly wise man but also an uncommonly wise man as-seen-through-his-daughter’s-eyes. It is easy to see why he is something of a puzzle to Scout and Jem as they compare what they hear around town to the compassion and empathy they see lying behind their father’s choices.

But it’s not just Atticus’s strength of character that the children (or we) may learn from. This play offers little nuggets of perspective from just about every character in this community—as we learn how an angry old lady may have admirable strength, a judge for an unjust case may have an honor-bound sense of fairness, a sheriff may be driven by compassion as well as duty, and a man who avoids people may still be kind to them.

Under the direction of company head James Hansen Prince, Core has crafted a pretty solid production of a very important play. The tech is simple but efficient, which is exactly what this story requires. A few performers in more minor roles stand out. Phoenix Brock, for example, plays both Nathan and Boo Radley, father and reclusive son. (Boo is the metaphorical “mockingbird"“ of the title.) The characters are minor but important, and Brock plays them as very distinct and different. IJ Gordon’s Tom Robinson was incredibly compelling in the trial scene. My favorite of the more minor characters would have to be the Finch family’s maid Calpurnia (Charlotte Crawford), who never failed to make me smile with her no-nonsense attitude. My only real hang-up about this production is that there were some general moments of hesitation, but this was an early performance, and they will hopefully iron out as the actors hit their strides.

This story, as most of us know, isn’t all sunshine and roses and happy endings if that’s what you’re looking for, but it is shockingly hopeful and magnificently kind. The characters must deal with difficult realities, frustration, and the edges of hopelessness in a situation it seems they can’t change. But the message that makes this play timeless is that when you are called to do right, just trying, even if you are unlikely to succeed, is of utmost importance. After all, “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

As Atticus teaches his children, “Courage isn’t a man with a knife in his hand. Jem – it’s when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. You rarely win – but sometimes you do.”

WHEN: Jan 16-Feb 15, 2026 (Industry Nite Jan 26th)
WHERE: 518 West Arapaho Road (Suite 115), Richardson TX
WEB: thecoretheatre.org