Review Roundup: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

Timothy Sheader's To Kill A Mockingbird opened at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre on 23 May 2013 and runs through 15 June 2013.

Harper Lee's classic story centres around a court case marred by racism, and the production features House star Robert Sean Leonard as Atticus Finch.

The cast also includes Richie Campbell, Simon Gregor, Hattie Ladbury, Rona Morison, Joe Speare, Daniel Tuite, Michele Austin, Christopher Ettridge, Tom Godwin, Stephen Kennedy, Phil King and Julie Legrand.

Let's see what the cirtics had to say:

Michael Coveney of whatsonstage.com writes: The show has a stark, outline quality about it, entirely suited to the poetry and compression of the adaptation. And as night closes in around us, and news comes of the tragedy after the conviction, the scene is set perfectly for the assault on the children themselves after a fancy dress pageant at the school.

Fiona Mountford of the Evening Standard writes: Timothy Sheader's playful production, with its town design based around a series of childlike chalk drawings on the floor, flares into life in a hugely affecting second half. Perhaps the cast, who are afflicted by some errant American accents, require the first to thaw out from the cold, although Jem and Scout, played with feistiness on opening night by Adam Scotland and Izzy Lee, are warm and mischievous from the start.

Charles Spencer of the Daily Telegraph says: If you have tears, prepare to shed them at this superb adaptation of Harper Lee's great book. For the first few minutes I was a touch sceptical, as members of the cast popped up among the audience, reading from the novel, before taking to the stage, which is virtually bare apart from a tree, on which the play's young heroine, Scout, swings on a tyre.

Libby Purves of The Times writes: ...The children are terrific... They are beautifully directed, as are all the townspeople: narrating, quarrelling, sometimes surging powerfully together across the stage to underscore moments of high tension... Robert Sean Leonard... is a marvel of restraint, conveying not showy heroism but weary, doubtful fragility... His courtroom summing-up, despite the great words, is played hesitant and almost broken. You shiver for him... At first I was uneasy at the idea of parts of Scout's narration being parcelled out to adult characters reading from vintage editions as if from sacred text. But it came to seem right, as if repeating the tale were a necessary community ritual...

Andrzej Lukowski of Time Out writes: On press night Izzy Lee's Scout had rangy, tomboyish charisma to spare; Harry Bennett nailed Dill as a cocky kid with an alluring loneliness; and Adam Scotland was great as Scout's more emotional, vulnerable older brother Jem. There's the odd bit of accent slippage, but the chemistry compensates. These three are the perfect child gang, and it is rare that we feel we're seeing events through anything other than their eyes.

Michael Coveney of the Independent writes: Sean Leonard, who first (and last) appeared on the London stage in Thornton Wilder's Our Town twenty years ago, and is best known as Hugh Laurie's sidekick, Dr James Wilson, in the Fox television series, House, moves deliberately through the play (the authorised, standard adaptation by the late Christopher Sergel) in true Peck style, even down to the horn-rimmed specs and crumplEd White suit.

Demetrios Matheou of the Artsdesk writes: It's one thing performing, and seeing this story of the Deep South in its steamy locale, where even the shade is "sweltering" and "men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning", another outdoors in a still painfully chilly London May. But it's testament to Timothy Sheader's production that for long moments we are agreeably wrapped in the story's magical embrace.

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