Powerful, timely "To Kill a Mockingbird" at Media Theatre

Black History Month. A staging of To Kill a Mockingbird. Natural fit. But the mostly musical-oriented Media Theatre Company staging it?

Yes. Yes indeed. I've seen Jesse Cline direct many shows over the last 20 years, but the scope and overwhelming power of his production of Christopher Sergel's adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird eclipses almost all of them.

It starts with the script.

Lee's novel consists of three subjects: Scout (Lexi Gwynn) and her account of the town and people of Maycomb, Ala.; the way Scout and brother Jem (Brayden Orpello-McCoy) torment their reclusive neighbor, Boo Radley (John Baxter); and their attorney father Atticus (Bob Stineman) and his efforts at the trial of Tom Robinson (Travis Keith Battle), a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.

Sergel's dramatic adaptation centers everything on the trial. This calls for some radical restructuring, since Robinson isn't mentioned until well into the novel.

Sergel's streamlining turns act 1 into a fitting prologue to act 2's courtroom drama, complete with comic interruptions, hostile witnesses, and - in Stineman's skillful performance - a closing argument that almost earned a standing ovation from the opening night audience.

I would have second-guessed Cline's decision to cast Stineman, a hale-looking man in his mid-30s, as Atticus, whom Lee describes as nearing 50 and beginning to seem elderly. But Stineman delivers a winning portrayal that balances fatherly calm and quietly inspiring moral recitations with moments of passion, steadfast courage, and principled action.

Standouts in the supporting cast include Kelly Briggs as Sheriff Tate, Hillary Parker's deft turn as Maudie Atkinson, and that rare gem of a debut (on any stage!) by Tim Woodward Sr. as the impoverished, threatening Bob Ewell.

Cline also creates a strong sense of local community in his casting, hiring the Rev. Warren D. Mays, Sr., pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Media, to play Reverend Sykes, and inviting members of his congregation to fill out the ensemble.

While mostly family-friendly, the production doesn't remove the book's frank language, racial epithets, or saltier insults. But this production also instructs and resonates as much as it hearkens back to a struggle as old as America and as fresh as Cline's forthright choices in this powerful depiction of a literary classic.