TKAMB

The first time I ever read it was when I was in 5th grade. I'm not sure I got all of it. When I was in 7th grade, I came back to visit my 5th grade teacher and while helping her organize bookshelves, she said if a book was ripping, I could have it. So I took the ripping copy and gave it a home on my shelf. I read it again a few more times and slowly started to understand more and more. In 9th grade, we read it in class and I gained a deeper understanding of the symbolism, allusions, geography, historical relevance. It was the first time I watched the movie, even as a fourteen-year-old, giggled at how goofy Dill was, how idealistic Jem was, and how amazingly wonderful in every way, shape, and form, Gregory Peck was.

Over the years, I read the book again and again. The book started to fall apart, the spine broke apart, leaving it in two nearly attached pieces. The front cover and the first several pages of dedications and title pages came off and I made sure to read much more carefully to make sure nothing else tore off. The insides are marked up with highlights and underlines, doodles and notes in the margins. At this point, you can tell me a part and I can find it within five seconds. It is hands down my favorite book in the whole wide world.

While in London, I found out that the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre was staging a production of TKAMB and there was the added bonus of Robert Sean Leonard performing the role of Atticus. How could I not at least investigate tickets? The online store was being fussy so I took an afternoon one day and walked over to the box office. It was lucky I did because I ended up getting the very last ticket for my last day in London during the matinee performance. Perfection.

The production was incredibly unique. The stage was a large open area with no background and no curtain. The show began with the actor scattered throughout the audience, standing up and reading lines from the first few paragraphs of the actual novel. They would essentially form the narrators of the story, "reading" from their copies of the book in their normal accents. As their characters, they would put on a very costume pieces and speak in the typical Southern accent befitting Maycomb Alabama. When not playing a character or narrating, the actors would sit on the sides of the stage, observing the action. The three children playing Scout, Jem, and Dill were adorable. I'm not posting any pictures because I can't find any of my Scout and the ones I found show the girl wearing a terrible wig so there you have it. Scout was truly adorable- she was so young that her accent was this hybrid Southern/British accent but she was so innocent and loving and loveable and precocious and pugnacious at the same time. I just loved her.

And then there was RSL. He was perfection. My favorite line in the whole novel is "Thank you, Arthur. Thank you for my children." He gave me shivers saying that, which is a true sign of amazingness. I have nothing bad to say about him.

I'm so grateful that I was able to take the opportunity to see this incredible show. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that it's given me a whole new appreciation of the original novel.

And here are some pictures that I took sneakily!