To Kill a Mockingbird

 Curve, Leicester

28^th October, 2025

Following a West End run, Bartlett Sher’s acclaimed Broadway production of Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s 1960 classic novel comes to Leicester as part of its UK tour.

“Our darkest days are always followed by our finest hours”

…So says Scout, our narrator and the daughter to Atticus Finch, the lawyer trying to prove the innocence of a black man wrongly accused of rape. But whilst Sorkin faithfully keeps the setting in 1930s Alabama, the above line has a searing prescience and timeliness. It’s also been used before by Sorkin. The line pops up in different iterations in his HBO series The Newsroom starring Jeff Daniels (who originated the role of Finch on Broadway in 2018) and in a personal letter the writer wrote to his daughter following the first election of President Donald Trump, in 2016. The line resurfaces throughout Sorkin’s writing just as America’s darkest days themselves seem to return.

The book is a syllabus staple but even those unfamiliar with Lee’s novel probably know the outline of the plot, which is remains intact in its transition to the stage. In the small town of Maycomb, Tom Robinson is accused of taking advantage of and beating a local girl despite there being proof he couldn’t have done it. Her father, a racist and member of the KKK, leads the charge against Tom. It is Atticus Finch, all round nice guy and not, by trade, a criminal defence lawyer, who is persuaded to represent Joe to do the right thing for him and indeed the law itself. We see this through the lens of his children Scout and Gem and their friend Dill (played respectively by Anna Munden, Gabriel Scott and Dylan Malyn, all brilliant). The decision to cast adult actors in this production is a smart one. Their narration carries the show and the actors strike the right balance childhood innocence and wiser-than-their-years shrewdness: Scout will typically tell the audience one thing before correcting herself after her brother disagrees followed by Dill chipping in with some hilarious commentary of his own. As they’re exposed to the reality of injustice and the complexities of the 1930s American South, their childlike understanding of human nature is tainted. Innocence and injustice, then, are key themes in To Kill a Mockingbird, and as well as come characters’ violent outbursts of racism, it’s striking that Sorkin and Sher bring to the fore many sympathetic characters who are innocent, marginalised individuals in society. One of the criticisms now given to Mockingbird is that Finch is a typical white saviour whose romanticised plan of saving Tom naively exists to test the machinations of law and to advance his understanding of racism in that time and place. This production isn’t innocent in correcting that, but Sorkin cleverly expands the role of Finch’s maid (who’s like a sister to him) to give a voice to that criticism.

Sher’s production is paced like a thriller, and this is a hallmark of Sorkin’s adaptation. One of the key structural decisions he’s made is to weave the courtroom scenes throughout. This is no surprise given he’s a heavyweight at courtroom dramas such as in films like A Few Good Men and The Trial of the Chicago 7. It gives the play a sense of weight and urgency even during scenes set on the porch and around sleepy Maycomb. The courtroom scenes, in particular, are pin-drop theatre and Sorkin’s dialogue and control of the audience’s attention is masterly. Played out on Miriam Buether’s atmospheric set, most of the set pieces are wheeled or flown in which neatly reflects the narration recounting the story.

It’s thrilling to see a play peopled with such a large cast, brimming with talent. Richard Coyle as Atticus Finch is excellent: in a cream suit (costumes by Ann Roth), he’s dependable, amiable, approachable but with the right air of authority. Munden, Scott and Malyn, with their honeyed southern accents, have a warm rapport with each other and the audience (Munden in particular is very impressive). Evie Hargreaves as the victim, whose interrogation in the court comes towards the climax on the first act, is also very watchable: twitching as she sinks in her chair in the dock, her eyes of full fear and scepticism that’s been instilled in her by her dad (Oscar Pearce). But this is an ensemble piece and something could be written about each of the actor’s performances. Even the non-verbal reactions the jury give are detailed, truthful and individual, such is the care and attention that Sher has imbued in his cast.

There’s a reason this production is the highest grossing American play in Broadway history. Its story is a searing dramatization of racial injustice in America which is still relevant today, but it’s also suspensefully and glossily told in a first-rate staging.

To Kill a Mockingbird plays at Curve, Leicester until 1^st November as part of a UK tour. For further information, please visit https://www.curveonline.co.uk/whats-on/shows/to-kill-a-mockingbird/

Richard Coyle (Atticus Finch) Anna Munden (Scout Finch) in To Kill A Mockingbird. Photo by Johan Persson

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

 Curve, Leicester

23^rd October, 2025

“Martha's a devil with language. She really is”

In the middle of the night, we’re invited to spend a few hours of fun and games with history professor George and his wife Martha, along with a young couple they’ve invited back for an after party. As the play progresses the reality of their academic and liberal life becomes increasingly precarious and we spiral into their claustrophobic, booze-fuelled world of bitterness and disappointment. Cathy Tyson and Patrick Robinson give powerhouse performances in this timely Made at Curve production directed by Cara Nolan.

Edward Albee’s 1962 Tony winning play is an American classic up there with Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire. What’s staggering then is that it was his first full length three-act play. We’re in a small New England college town: respectable, liberal, full of young blonde-haired optimism. These values are characterised by the younger married couple Honey (Tilly Steele) and Nick (George Kemp) when they first enter the home of George (Robinson) and Martha (Tyson). What they walk in to is a world of explosive arguments, manipulation and failed dreams. George is a struggling associate history professor unable to have lived up to his father in law’s (who is head of the college) expectations. Martha torments him, reminding him of his failures every chance she gets, whilst living her own fantasy life fuelled by alcohol. The title alludes to a parlour game at the party earlier in the evening, becoming a motif, sung childishly throughout the play. As Nick and Honey are toyed with, becoming embroiled in George and Martha's cruel games, we are similarly drawn into their trickery and backbiting, the rug repeatedly being pulled from under our feet. Albee’s dialogue is rhythmic and cyclical, full of squabbling and revelations that are delicious to watch. Martha and George turn everything from heartache and painful memories, indeed marriage itself, into a game.

As the play progresses, Albee destabilises the ideals of marriage and the American Dream: career success, the nuclear family, a stable marriage. At a time when America is looking in the mirror at those values, its identity and its Dream, Nolan’s production couldn’t be timelier. Her direction is well-paced and revels in the vitriol of Albee’s language, drawing out excellent performances from the cast. Tyson in particular is quite the force as Martha, bringing out her monstrous cruelty, her ability to exploit George, but also evoking a well of pain underneath. There are points, like when describing someone’s eye colour, where she’s undermining George and relishing every word. And there are other moments, like the guttural scream she produces in the third act after George pops the bubble of her make-believe world, where we sympathise with her. Robinson has a natural stage presence, making George’s dry wit and glibness Martha’s perfect match; I loved the way he offered to pour Martha another glass of rubbing alcohol. And Steele gives a standout performance as Honey: initially meek and passive, she gains confidence the more sloshed she gets, revealing the cracks in her and Nick’s seemingly perfect marriage. This is all played out on Amy Jane Cook’s set: a handsome living room strewn with books and peppered with liquor bottles squirreled away in dark corners and bookshelves.

There’s delight in watching these four actors give towering performances as characters who refuse to conform to domestic expectations and instead embrace their inner chaos. Over the three hours 20 minutes running time, bottles are broken, alcohol spilt and mascara runs, but Nolan and her cast keep the audience on the edge of their seats with Albee’s vision of a shattered American dream and marital disharmony.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is playing at Curve until 8^th November. For more information, please visit https://www.curveonline.co.uk/whats-on/shows/whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf/

(L-R) George Kemp (Nick), Tilly Steele (Honey), Patrick Robinson (George), Cathy Tyson (Martha) - Photography by Marc Brenner

Matilda the Musical

 Curve, Leicester

9^th October, 2025

“Just because you find that life’s not fair

it doesn’t mean that you just have to grin and bear it”

What is it about Roald Dahl’s stories that have so captured the minds of theatre makers?

To my mind it is his ability to present moral fables without sugar-coating the truth, often served up with great dollops of gruesome humour and characters that fizz with personality, while never underestimating the reader’s intelligence and imagination. Dahl’s enduring popularity with both children and adults make him the perfect source for family-friendly stage work.

 

The lyrics to ‘Naughty’ succinctly capture of the ethos of Dahl’s work – the underdog overcoming adversity; Robin Hood-ing your way out of a problem; childhood revelry; razor-sharp wit – and in Matilda, Tim Minchin (music and lyrics), Dennis Kelly (book) and Matthew Warchus (director) have created the greatest what is still the Dahl adaptation to date. Now, fifteen years after it first premiered at the RSC, the modern classic is heading back on tour and proving yet again why Minchin and Warchus (and Dahl!) are a force to be reckoned with.

Neglected by shallow parents who’d rather preen and watch endless amounts of TV than spend time with their daughter, five year old Matilda Wormwood escapes into a world of books and make-believe. Her precocious intelligence and determination to do what’s right endear her to her peers and caring-but-timid teacher, Miss Honey (Tessa Kadler). Alongside these new friends she uses her ‘miraculous’ gifts to serve her ignorant parents and bullying headmistress, Miss Trunchbull (Richard Hurst), their long-awaited comeuppance.

 

Minchin peppers the show with catchy tunes and his trademark lyrical wit; the ‘School Song’ is a particular highlight as the nervous newcomers get a lesson in both the alphabet and the perils of the education system. Minchin’s use of homophones is nothing short of genius. Elsewhere, puns a plenty (‘Revolting Children’) and a darn good raiding of the thesaurus - without, may I add, feeling at all exploitative – (‘The Smell of Rebellion’ has a definitive list of every olfactory related synonym in the English language!) exemplify the same skilful wordsmithery which so enchanted me in Minchin’s Groundhog Day (another collaboration with Warchus). While Minchin is a talented showman himself, I can’t help but itch for his next compositional offering, as he has the potential to produce a body of work as exciting and enduring as Sondheim or Kander and Ebb.

 

Kelly’s book is just as absorbing as the musical numbers, allowing each character their moment to shine in a series of anecdotal episodes – Bruce Bogtrotter and the chocolate cake, Lavender and the newt, Amanda Thripp and her pigtails, etc. The subplot in which Matilda narrates the story of the Acrobat and the Escapologist is a beautiful insight into her imagination as well as sweetly revealing her yearning for a loving family. Storytelling imbues much of the aesthetic of Warchus’ production, from the cartoonish stylisation of the Wormwoods and employment of music hall type interaction seen in ‘Telly’, to Rob Howell’s building block-cum-scrabble tile design.

 

Peter Darling’s choreography is punchy with echoes of the original Spring Awakening movement. The kids hurl themselves in and out of angular positions with rebellious verve, while desks, swings and even parts of the walls become platforms upon which to express the constraints and freedoms of the youth. Warchus ensures the fun extends to the very final seconds of the show, with a wonderfully directed curtain call involving scooters whizzing across the stage and an in-character Hurst delivering an arch ‘maggots’ to the audience. I doubt there was a person in the room that didn’t wish they were up on the stage joining in with the uninhibited playfulness of the finale.

 

Hurst has a lot of fun with Miss Trunchbull, relishing in her down right nastiness while revealing a sprightly and surprising vigour such as when blithely flipping over a gym horse or tossing a baton. I particularly enjoyed Hurst’s dry wit and quiet menace, his Trunchbull turns on a sixpence from panto villainy to a very real icy threat with chilling ease, resulting in an unpredictability that invigorates this well-known story. Likewise, Rebecca Thornhill and Adam Stafford have a blast as the despicable Wormwoods, and, though a lad of few words, Samuel Leon had the audience cracking up with his portrayal of Matilda’s dim-witted brother, Michael. Yet, quite rightly, and as ever when it comes to Dahl, the children run away with the whole show. By turns impish, sweet, and laugh-out-loud funny, the child cast are impeccable and more than match their adult counterparts. At this performance Matilda was played by Sanna Kurihara and she was tremendous. One of my favourite moments was her Act 2 number, ‘Quiet’, which Minchin packs full of twisting lyrics and complex concepts involving physics and philosophy. Kurihara expresses these perplexing notions with great poise, building up the web of thoughts and noise that both feed and confound Matilda’s brain. We can feel her frustration, and the post-crescendo peace that ensues is ethereally tranquil as a consequence. Kurihara’s performance is one of subtlety and maturity which is a joy to behold.

 

Kelly and Minchin have bottled Dahl’s dual senses of whimsy and justice and Warchus’ spectacular production is filled with now iconic imagery (the use of swings during ‘When I Grow Up’ makes me emotional due to the nostalgia evoked in its youthful simplicity and soaring giddiness) but never feels gimmicky. The kids in the audience were rapt with attention, the adults tickled and charmed in equal measure - Matilda is THE family musical of this generation and a must-see for musical theatre aficionados for Minchin’s score alone. The fun and mischief is infectious and I can’t remember the last time I smiled this much at the theatre.

 

Matilda the Musical is playing at Curve, Leicester until 25^th October as part of a UK tour. For all dates and further information please visit https://tour.matildathemusical.com/

 

The cast of Matilda the Musical including Madison Davis as Matilda Credit: Manuel Harlan