"To Kill a Mockingbird"

We went downtown this afternoon to see a performance of To Kill a Mockingbird, and we took young Miss C with us. This was her first live play, other than productions at the local high school.

I loved that book from the first reading when I was a teenager, and the very first copy I owned was a battered paperback from a used book store. After that, I found a better paperback, then an old hardcover, and now I've got a brand-new hardcover, the 40th Anniversary edition, published in 1999.

When we went to New Orleans a few years ago, I found a signed First Edition of To Kill a Mockingbird in a bookstore in the French Quarter. Signed First Edition. I was so tempted to buy that, but the price was just so high.

Today's production was wonderful, with perfectly-cast young actors in the roles of Scout, Jem and Dill. As in the book, the narration was done by Scout, represented on stage by an adult Scout who stood off to the side watching the play unfold inbetween her speaking parts. They even found an Gregory Peck-looking actor to play Atticus. Although, I don't know why they felt they had to do that. Maybe for the simple reason that everyone is so familiar with Gregory Peck in that role. The children also..... Dill looked as Dill should look, as did Scout and Jem.

C had to read the book for school at the beginning of the term, and her dad rented the old black/white film from Blockbuster so she could see that as well. I had suggested to her that she not watch the movie until she read the book, and she did just that. After reading the book, then watching the movie, she decided the book was so much better. Even though today's production was extremely well done, we both agreed that nothing could ever hold a candle to the book itself. I don't think I've ever seen a film which did justice to the author's work.

I had tears in my eyes when today's play was over, and I don't know if it was due to the emotions of the story itself, or because To Kill a Mockingbird represents a time-line in my life. I read it when I was a young teenager, and I've read it once or twice every decade thereafter. The last time I read this book was in 1999 when I bought this 40th Edition publication. With each reading, at each point in my life, situations were different, locations were different. Life just kept changing, but To Kill a Mockingbird was blessedly the same.

After seeing the characters live on stage this afternoon, I think it's time for me to read the story once again.


We had dinner at Birraporeti's after the play, an Italian restaurant around the corner from the theatre. We figured it was better to just eat downtown while most of the theatre crowd found their cars in the parking garage and slowly made their way to the streets. While we were being seated at our table, the young boy who played Dill was being shown to a nearby table with his own family. We resisted the urge to go and tell him how much we enjoyed his performance. By the time we went for our car, the garage was practically empty and it was easy to negotiate our way out from the 8th level and back to the Gulf Freeway.

Instead of having dessert at the restaurant, we made our way to Hank's Ice Cream, behind Reliant Field. The best ice cream in Houston, bar none, and Hank was behind the counter so we got to say hello to him.