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A CurtainUp Review
A Time to Kill
By Elyse Sommer
| "I had to do it, or I couldn't live with myself."— Carl Lee Hailey, trying to explain the act that ends up putting him into an orange suit instead of the two rapists first up before the judge. "The system was working, until this man decided to take justice in his own hands."— District Attorney Rufus R Buckley. "And until we can see each other as equals, justice is never going to be even-handed. It will remain nothing more than a reflection of our own prejudices.— Jake Brigance |
Fred Dalton Thompson, John Douglas Thompson, and Sebastian Arcelus
(Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg)
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I'll admit that legal thrillers as books or movies aren't my favorite thing. Some of the better ones have turned out to be very watchable Masterpiece Mysteries and it's been fun to take spot the stage actor outings via TV's New York Law & Order franchise.
I didn't read A Time to Kill, the 1980 seedling for John Grisham's page turning career, until last summer in anticipation of seeing Rupert Holmes' stage adaptation. To my pleasant surprise, I found it to be totally absorbing. To start, there was the intriguing twist of having the trial of two white men's brutal rape of a 10-year-old black girl morph into the trial of the child's father, who then hires a white lawyer to take on his tough to win defense. But what kept me flipping my Kindle pages was the novel's rich panorama of Polk County Mississippi, a New South community with plenty of Old South residue (like an outraged, cross burning group of Klansmen) that had the flavor of an updated To Kill a Mocking Bird.
I decided to also watch the widely praised film version (Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey), but turned it off after about ten minutes. Not because it was a bad adaptation but because it seemed like one source too many to interfere with an unclouded by comparison's view of the stage version.
Now that I've seen A Time to Kill at the Golden Theater, I wish I could say it was exciting enough to deserve a place alongside classic stage courtroom dramas like Twelve Angry Men, A Few Good Men, Inherit the Wind and, yes, To Kill a Mockingbird. Perhaps it might have if playwright and crime writer Rupert Holmes had found a way to condense the 530 page source material without losing much what put Grisham's book a cut above the flood of standard issue legal dramas.
Granted, Holmes's task was not an easy one. Vivid writing can fire up a novel reader's imagination to "see" a large cast of characters and picture the various locales. Film makers can let their camera s roam outside the courtroom, which was the case for the filmed version of A Time to Kill. But the theater requires a tighter rein on the number of characters and scene changes and Holmes has done a pretty effective job of following Grisham's plot and capturing some of the subtext of a society that now has a black Sheriff but has yet to really accept its African-American citizens or rid itself completely of people looking for a chance to reactivate the Klu Klux Klan.
Director Ethan McSweeney has seen to it that the story unfolds at a consistently crisp pace. He's also cleverly made an asset out of the inability to populate his courtroom with spectators and a jury, by having his attorneys and witnesses address the audience as if they were the jury. The always resourceful set designer James Noone has contained the story telling within a single rotating set that serves as courtroom, ante-chamber and defense lawyer Jake Brigance's office. The top of the set's high wooden walls accommodate between scenes projected images by Jeff Sugg that give a sense of what's going on outside the courtroom.
While no one would want to actually witness the rape of the child, depicted in harrowing detail in the book, it seems to call for more gasp-inducing presentation. And the big event that replaces rednecks on trial with their victim's father also doesn't have quite the impact given the limitations of the courtroom as the main setting.
Thus, while the first act will probably resonate most favorably with theater goers unfamiliar with the book or the movie, the second act does move into high drama territory that includes a scary and very realistic fire and tends to squelch comparisons. Of course the real pyrotechnics come from the actors.
While Sebastian Arcelus, who also starred in the Washington, DC premiere, looks enough like Matthew McConaughey the movie's Jack Brigance to be his brother. However, he makes his own distinctive mark as the still struggling street lawyer for whom this is a career and life changer.
Speaking of resemblances, Patrick Page, looking and sounding more like house speaker John Boehner than Spider-Man's Green Goblin, nevertheless just about steals the show as the unctious, grandstanding District Attorney Rufus R. Buckley.
John Douglas Thompson, true to form, turns in a splendid performance as Carl Lee Hailey, the devoted father and husband who takes the biblical edict "and there's a time to kill" literally. Tonya Pinkins is also quite fine as his wife Gwen, though her role has been sharply reduced and is limited to a few brief scenes.
Fred Dalton Thompson, who since his Senate days (as the Republican's chief counsel during the Watergate hearings) has had a busy career as an actor, brings the right tone of authority to the symbolically named Judge Omar Noose. Chike Johnson, the only holdover from the DC production besides Arcelus, is excellent as the Sheriff who must uphold the law even though his heart's with Hailey and the rest of the black community.
Ashley Williams is okay as Ellen Roark, the super-smart young law student who joins Jake because she sees this trial as an important first step towards a stellar legal career, but her character has been too drastically downsized to be interesting. The same is pretty much true for Jake's alcoholic mentor, the disbarred Lucien Wilbanks as played by Tom Skerritt.
The play ends as any self-respecting courtroom must with right triumphing over might. No doubt it will also reinvigorate sales of A Time to Kill (the e-reader edition is currently available for $2.95, which is considerably less than the price of a ticket) and certainly help sales for Mr. Grisham's new Jake Brigance book, Sycamore Row. Now there's a smart case of of savvy marketing!
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A Time to Kill By Rupert Holmes, based on John Grisham's novel of the same name. Directed by Ethan McSweeny Cast: Sebastian Arcelus (Attorney Jake Brigance) Patrick Page (District Attorney Rufus Buckley) Tonya Pinkins (Gwen Hailey) Fred Dalton Thompson (The Honorable Judge Omar Noose) John Douglas Thompson (Carl Lee Hailey) Tom Skerritt(Lucien Wilbanks) Chike Johnson (Ozzie Walls) Dashiell Eaves (Pete Willard/D.R. Musgrove) , J.R. Horne (Mr. Pate) John Procaccino (Drew Tyndale/ Dr.W.T Bass) Tijuana Ricks (Court Reporter) Lee Sellars (Cobb/Rhodeheaver/Grist) Set Designer: James Noone Costume Designer: David C.Woolard Lighting Designer: York Kennedy Sound Designer: Lindsay Jones Projection Designer: Jeff Sugg Fight Director: David S. Leong Hair and Wig Design: Paul Huntley Stage Manager: James Latus Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes including one intermission. John Golden Theatre 252 West 45th Street From 9/28/13; opening 10/20/13; to an early grave-- closing 11/17/13 Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at October 19th press preview |
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