Review: Sorkin’s Adaptation of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Shows Fallibility of Finch
A theatrical adaption of Harper Lee’s classic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is now on stage in Boston, as the first post-Broadway run at The Huntington Theatre through Nov. 8. The novel follows 6-year-old Scout as she, her brother Jem, and her friend Dill, come-of-age in the fictional, racially segregated town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the 1930s. In particular, they witness Scout’s father, lawyer Atticus Finch, defend Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman.
Aaron Sorkin, the Academy Award winner and creator of “The West Wing” and “A Few Good Men,” has attempted to adapt this classic novel with fresh eyes, especially in speaking to the realities and tensions in 2026 and "to consider how far we’ve come, and how far we still need to go.” In this version, Sorkin makes the characters more human and complicated, especially on issues of morality and agency. Atticus Finch, the main protagonist, has a strong legacy as a symbol of unwavering justice and moral integrity through his defending of Robinson in the Jim Crow South.
Through this version, Sorkin develops Atticus more fully as a human. As stated in the program notes by Charles Haugland: “...in previous incarnations of the story, Atticus was a static, perfect figure, almost carved out of marble. ‘I didn’t have to invent a flaw for Atticus…It’s just that when we learned the book, it was taught to us as a virtue.’”
The play was written around the time of the 2017 Charlottesville rallies that included Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi protesters. Sorkin would later tell the Boston Globe that he was struck by the comment that there were “very fine people on both sides.”
“I’m not comparing Atticus to Donald Trump, but doesn’t Atticus think there are fine people on both sides?,” Sorkin told the Boston Globe. “Then I got excited because I thought: Now there’s kind of a reason to do this play. It’s not a trip to the museum. It has relevancy today.”
Instead of the treatment of a perfect white savior as he tends to be remembered, Atticus has to learn how to deal with the complicated reality that not everyone is good and will uphold the same values of justice and truth. Rather than purely criticizing Atticus, Sorkin lets us see the hypocrisy of the society they’re in and gives the critical Black characters, Calpurnia and Tom, more say in their actions, motivations, and even their thoughts about Atticus and the town. In a pivotal scene, Calpurnia calls out Atticus for naively excusing the townsfolk's racism and thinking of himself as morally above everyone else, even as the play shows his elitist tensions with the lower-class farmers of the town in his moments of anger.
Beyond the character development, the play is direct with its commentary about the modern day. At times, this is done tactfully, as when Link Deas talks of building up a tolerance for cruelty and the moral hypocrisies and prejudices of the well-to-do white townsfolk: “And you can’t tell who’s who just by looking… Because when horror comes to supper, it comes dressed exactly like a Christian.”
In other parts of the play, the direct commentary falls flat. Scout’s and Atticus’ monologue at the end feels particularly long-winded, as they urge for change while invoking somewhat hollow biblical references of hope. All in all, Sorkin’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” invites us to think critically about the morality of beloved characters and reflect on the story’s relevance today, even as the final ending message falls into a cliche about hope and doing the right thing.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” runs through November 8, with performances every day except Mondays at The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave. in Boston, Massachusetts. Written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Loretta Greco, tickets start from $29, with select discounts for students and military, and are available at https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/whats-on/to-kill-a-mockingbird/.
This review is slated to appear in a print edition of the Sampan later.
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