You won't find any big-name Hollywood celebs in A Time to Kill.John Grisham is the marquee name at Broadway’s Golden Theater. Under the sharp direction of Ethan McSweeny, this Rupert Holmes stage adaptation of Grisham's novel and the popular film that followed centers on some notable stage performances reacting to the drama of a horrific crime.
The setting is a racially divided small town, Clanton, Mississippi in the early 1980's. A ten-year-old black girl has just been tortured and raped by two white druggies. Listening with contained fury as one of the sleazy young attackers callously brags about the crime, the child's father, Carl Lee Hailey (John Douglas Thompson), strains to refrain from tearing apart the rapists. Vowing revenge, he takes an assault rifle and deliberately murders the two attackers outside the courtroom. For help, he turns to Jake Brigance (Sebastian Arcelus), a young "street lawyer" whom he trusts, pleading for Jake to take his case, certain that everyone will recognize that his revenge is justified.
Jake faces a difficult defense battle going head-to-head with Rufus R. Buckley, the smarmy district attorney played by Patrick Page, a manipulator with his eye on the governor's seat. The town draws apart, with renewed reactions by the Ku Klux Klan, burning crosses, threats, and crowds crying, "Free Carl Lee" or "Fry Carl Lee." Both Carl Lee and Jake are in physical danger, and collateral danger intimidates court officials including Judge Omar Noose, played with droll austerity by Fred Dalton Thompson.
Playwright Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) focuses sharply on the courtroom and adds jolts of down-home humor to the disturbing story. Effectively, Ethan McSweeny uses a revolving stage to allow the audience several perspectives of the action. James Noone's set of wood panels soaring to the rafters is striking as a courtroom, but the scene changes are occasionally clumsy. Incidental music by sound director Lindsay Jones hovers on the brink of melodrama, but the feeling is powerful when paired with Jeff Sugg's projections of the menacing crowds.
As Jake, Arcelus (Elf, TV's “House of Cards”) is capable. He plays it lightly until his high point toward the end, when facing the jury (audience), he comes into his own and delivers a vigorous defense summary.
A praiseworthy ensemble includes John Douglas Thompson who is riveting to watch as the haunted Carl Lee, electrified from within. Patrick Page (the Green Goblin in Spider-Man; Turn Off the Dark) slyly calls up Buckley's full cache of dirty tricks to sway the all-white jury and the media to "reject the law of the jungle."
Veteran actor Tom Skerrit shows up as Jake's mentor, Lucien Wilbanks, with a weakness for booze and a way with words. It is not until late in the story that Lucien straightens up enough to be of any help.
Tonya Pinkins brings warmth and support in her few moments as Carl Lee's wife, and Chike Johnson balances decency and pragmatism in his role as Sheriff Ozzie. Billy Ray Cobb (Lee Sellars) and Pete Willard (Dashiell Eaves) are suitably loathsome as the young criminals. One false note is Ashley Williams as Ellen Ruark (Ashley Williams) as a brainy law student who volunteers to help Jake build his case and. a tad too obviously, injects the lame tension of sexual attraction.
It's clearly the good guys against the bad, but A Time to Kill delivers a satisfying few hours of courtroom drama.
