CLASSIC "TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD" FLIES INTO THE BUSHNELL JUNE 27

As classical theatrical events are portrayed, few can be as emotionally captivating as Harper Lee’s outstanding vision of Southern life in the 1930’s as “To Kill a Mockingbird.” You have the unique opportunity to recapture all of its dramatic impact in Aaron Sorkin’s new version, with an emphasis on race, justice and equality, with direction by Bartlett Sher, when it trumphantly enters the Hartford’s Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts from Tuesday, June 27 to Sunday, July 2. Take a seat in the Maycomb, Alabama courtroom where Richard Thomas’ Atticus Finch will defend a black man Tom Robinson accused of raping Maryella Ewell, a young white woman. It’s the time of the Great Depression, in 1933, and Attorney Finch is not applauded by many of the townsfolk for taking on this controversial case. His own children, Jean Louise Finch, all of six years old, and known as Scout and her older brother Jeremy, called Jem, are proud of their father for defending Tom’s rights and trying to prove his innocence. Scout is the narrator of the play and has many adventures with Jem and with Dill a boy who comes to stay with his aunts every summer. They are especially fascinated with a recluse named “Boo” Radley who hasn’t been seen for years. Many incidents in Harper Lee’s childhood parallel what happens in Maycomb, including her father being an attorney who himself defended two black men accused of murder who were convicted and hanged. He never tried a criminal case again. She also had a friend who would become the novelist Truman Capote in Dill. They often wrote and acted out imaginative tales. The title comes from a speech by Atticus that he received an air rifle as a boy and was told never to kill a mockingbird because they were innocent and it would be a sin against God to hurt them. For tickets ($42 and up), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at https://www.bushnell.org. Performances are Tuesday to Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Come see Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece, called by 60 Minutes “the most successful play in Broadway history” and by Rolling Stones 5 stars and “an emotionally shattering landmark production of an American classic."