Catch the classic play ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

The stage adaptation of Harper Lee's novel comes to Boston's Opera House this spring for two weeks.

Gbenga Akinnagbe and Ed Harris star in "To Kill a Mockingbird" as Tom Robinson and Atticus Finch.

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Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird became an instant American classic upon its release in 1960. It paints a moving portrait of a small town in the Deep South during the depression and the crisis that rocked it. Its stage adaptation comes to Boston’s Opera House this spring for two weeks.

Award-winning screenwriter, director, and playwright Aaron Sorkin adapted the novel for Broadway in 2018, to much critical acclaim. Sorkin’s previous show business credits include screenwriting for The West Wing, Moneyball, and The Social Network. Mockingbird the play followed the novel in instant classic status, called by NPR “one of the greatest plays in history.” The show won a Tony (and was nominated for nine others) and a Drama Desk Award, and Tony winner Barlett Sher directs the emotional, gripping stage phenomenon. Rolling Stone called the play “an emotionally shattering landmark production of an American classic.”

To Kill a Mockingbird is told from the perspective of Scout Finch, a young girl growing up in fictional Maycomb, Alabama, with her older brother and their widowed lawyer father, Atticus. The morally upright Atticus takes on the case of defending a Black man named Tom Robinson, accused of raping a young white woman in town. Facing ostracization, Atticus must decide to continue fighting for what’s right, protecting his children from the horrors of the Jim Crow era South as best he can.

Seen through a modern lens, To Kill a Mockingbird is as poignant as ever, confronting simmering racial tension and its subsequent prejudice and violence—while Atticus Finch remains one of American literature’s most famous heroes. Sorkin’s hit play will tour this spring for the first time since its 2018 debut, visiting Boston on its second stop.