美国国家公共电台 NPR Aaron Sorkin Brings 'To Kill A Mockingbird' To The Broadway Stage（在线收听）

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

When Aaron Sorkin first sat down to write a stage adaptation of the Harper Lee novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" - didn't go well.

AARON SORKIN: My first draft of "To Kill A Mockingbird" was terrible. Really, the best thing that you could say about it was that it was harmless, which is not something that you want to say about a play.

SIMON: This from the man who made "The West Wing," "The Newsroom" and wrote "A Few Good Men" and "The Social Network." Now he's taken on a classic that deals with race, sexual violence, the failures of the legal system and a man who has to navigate all of those. But what does a newer, not harmless version of "To Kill A Mockingbird" have to say about those themes in 2018? NPR's Andrew Limbong went to find out.

ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: After Aaron Sorkin turned in his first draft - that terrible, harmless one - he made a decision.

SORKIN: I'm not going to swaddle the novel in bubble wrap and gently transfer it to a theater. It wasn't going to be an homage or an exercise in nostalgia. This was going to be a new play.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD")

JEFF DANIELS: (As Atticus Finch) Tom Robinson.

GBENGA AKINNAGBE: (As Tom Robinson) Yes, sir.

DANIELS: (As Atticus Finch) I'm Atticus Finch.

AKINNAGBE: (As Tom Robinson) Yes, sir.

LIMBONG: Like any adaptation, stuff from the original source material gets tweaked slightly. In the book, we never get to see Atticus Finch meet Tom Robinson.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD")

AKINNAGBE: (As Tom Robinson) You want to be my lawyer now.

DANIELS: (As Atticus Finch) Tom, the very last thing I want in the world to be your lawyer right now. Negro man, white, teenage girl - I wouldn't be going in with a winning hand. But I'm compelled to defend you as an officer of the court. And in that capacity, I've taken a solemn oath to give you my best counsel, which is that you cannot and you must not plead guilty and go to jail for a crime that you did not, could not commit.

LIMBONG: Quick recap - "To Kill A Mockingbird" takes place in 1930s Alabama. The book is a coming-of-age story about a little girl named Scout witnessing her father, Atticus Finch, try to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who is being falsely accused of raping a white woman. In the book, Scout sees her father the way any kid might see their dad - heroic, valiant, perfect. The play takes a more measured view.

SORKIN: Many, many years had gone by between the first time I read the book and rereading the book a number of times for this play. And I kept being disappointed in Atticus.

LIMBONG: In the way the character holds empathy for others above everything else.

SORKIN: I was having an easy time relating to - I should say recognizing Atticus' brand of liberalism, which is almost - almost a narcissistic brand of liberalism that I am going to be so tolerant that I'll tolerate intolerance.

LIMBONG: It's an idealized version of the world, says LaTanya Richardson Jackson. She plays Calpurnia, the maid and cook of the Finch house. And she had discussions with playwright Sorkin about the role of the black characters in "Mockingbird" and how to get their input in a story where the source material largely glosses over them.

LATANYA RICHARDSON JACKSON: It is frustrating for Calpurnia that Atticus refuses to see that these people whom he keeps giving all of this credence to being good people are not good people. They just aren't.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD")

DANIELS: (As Atticus Finch) A mob acts out of emotion, absent facts, absent contemplation, mostly absent responsibility. What they get in return is anonymity. Conscience can be exhausting. It'll keep you up at night. Mob's a place where people go to take a break from their conscience.

LIMBONG: Here's how Jeff Daniels, who plays Atticus, sees it.

DANIELS: Not only is Tom Robinson's fate on trial but so is Atticus' belief in goodness, belief in other people, belief in generosity, belief in decency, civility, compassion, doing what's right. All of those things are on trial, and he has to fight for those beliefs.

LIMBONG: To question those beliefs is a risky move considering people who love "To Kill A Mockingbird" love "To Kill A Mockingbird." It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. And earlier this year, PBS held a nationwide viewer's poll, and "To Kill A Mockingbird" was voted the most loved novel in American literature.

KIM PARKER: To even say that you don't like the book or you think we should teach other books, you would think that we have committed some cardinal sin.

LIMBONG: Kim Parker is an educator at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Mass. She's taught "To Kill A Mockingbird" in class. And she's also the co-founder of Disrupt Texts, a group that challenges educators to think about books in the assumed classroom canon, you know, such as "To Kill A Mockingbird."

PARKER: There is such a nostalgia around that book. It has meant something to my students' parents when I was teaching white students and even some black parents also. And they don't want to think about, like, oh, maybe Atticus isn't the best example of justice because he could have done more, but he didn't it. And yet we still validate him. We hold him up as this hero.

LIMBONG: That the Atticus of the play isn't completely perfect and righteous from the beginning was one of the sticking points in the legal battle that faced this production. Long story short - Harper Lee gave permission to the play's producer, Scott Rudin, to adapt "To Kill A Mockingbird." In her will, Lee appointed Tonja Carter as her personal representative. After Lee died, Carter saw a draft of the script that she thought deviated too far from the original source material. What followed was a long back and forth of lawsuit and countersuits and Scott Rudin threatening to have the cast perform the play in the courtroom to prove that it tracked with the novel. They ended up settling, but writer Aaron Sorkin did make some small concessions to his script.

SORKIN: I had Atticus in moments of frustration and anger taking the Lord's name in vain. I agreed that Atticus wouldn't do that. I agreed that Atticus wouldn't drink alcohol. And I agreed that Atticus wouldn't have a shotgun in his closet.

LIMBONG: At the end of the day, Atticus is still Atticus. And 60 years later, "Mockingbird" still has something to teach us.

CHARLES COSTELLO: People don't change - sad but true.

LIMBONG: Charles Costello teaches religion at Bergen Catholic High School in New Jersey. He took a group of students to see a preview of the show. He says it's worth it, even though there's a book and a movie, to see the lessons of "Mockingbird" come alive on stage.

COSTELLO: Yeah. You have to repeat the lesson, repeat the lesson. Teachers are notorious for repeating themselves. This is a lesson that can be repeated.

LIMBONG: Even, or especially, if Atticus is the one doing the learning this time. Andrew Limbong, NPR News.