Interview: 'We Have To Strive To Be Better': Actor Richard Coyle on Tackling Injustice and Revisiting Atticus Finch in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

After performing as Atticus Finch in the West End production of To Kill A Mockingbird, Richard Coyle returns to the role, this time on a tour of the UK and Ireland. Recently, we had the chance to chat with Coyle about coming back to the play. We discussed what made him want to return to the role, how the tour has been going so far and what he thinks keeps To Kill A Mockingbird so relevant over sixty years since it was first published.

How did you first get started in the world of theatre?

Well, I started doing plays when I was a student, and I followed that through and went to drama school. It was something I found a passion, and the thing that I felt like I was meant to do. So I just followed that, and it took me to drama school and then into being a professional actor!

And what made you want to be a part of To Kill a Mockingbird in 2022 in the West End?

Well, it's a very important book to me, personally, so it's a passion project for me. It's something that means a huge amount to me, and it's a story that I feel is very important. Being a part of it, and being able to tell it in this way, is an honour and a real privilege. It's very rare that we get to do something that really means a great deal to you personally. To be able to be part of that professionally, I feel like I'm sharing something of me, so that that makes it feel special. 

What was it like to prepare to take on the role of Atticus Finch?

It's a responsibility, and I really enjoyed the process of preparing. This adaptation is is very much an amalgamation of both books, and it's an updating of Atticus for the world that we live in now. The first incarnation on stage on Broadway was under Donald Trump mark one, so it's remained incredibly relevant and topical through Trump one, and it now will through Trump two.

And what has it been like to return to the role now?

It has been a really sweet feeling. The fever dream of doing it in the West End . . . It all happened and went by in a blur. I felt very much like, “Oh, I'm not sure that I finished what I wanted to do.” And so it was really a sweet feeling of being able to return, to address it again with a couple of years distance thoughts about it. I've never returned to a role before, so it's been a new experience, and I'm really enjoying it!

You said you were looking to do more with the role when you left the West End. Could you go a bit more into that?

Well, it's probably true of any any role that I've played! For most actors, there's a level of engagement with the work that you're doing. Part of the reward and nourishment of doing it on a personal level comes from the constant interrogation of what you're doing, engagement with it - being in it and driving it and feeling it. And also being able to step outside it and look from the audience perspective and a wider perspective of, “What is what are we saying here? What is this moment about?” It's really nice to have a chance to ask these questions again. The world has changed slightly since I did it in the West End, and Mockingbird is always really relevant.

Why do you think that To Kill a Mockingbird has remained so relevant?

We live in such complicated times. And the questions that Mockingbird as a book - and as a play - asks are about justice, morality, innocence/loss of innocence, integrity, how we teach children . . . All of these questions that are literally timeless questions. But there are also really important questions that, saddeningly and frustratingly, are incredibly pertinent. Questions of injustice - racial injustice, in particular, with Mockingbird. And that is not a subject that has gone away. And you know you want your hope when you dream that things won't be this way forever. “Joy cometh in the morning,” is one of the final lines of the play. And Calpurnia says, “It’s [morning] taking its sweet time getting here,” and that seems to be always true. These things take such a long time, but it's very important that we remind ourselves constantly that we have to strive to be better. 

What has it been like so far bringing this show on tour?

Well, it's been very interesting! The audience response is overwhelmingly positive, always. I think it's the same as it was on Broadway, the US tour, in London - we take the audience on a hell of a journey. And they're responding incredibly well! They've been fantastic so far.

What do you hope audiences take away from this production of To Kill a Mockingbird?

On the one hand, being able to be in the theatre and the live arts is one thing. Bringing people into theatres where they can experience and feel something - communal grief and a communal joy, all the things that you experience in a theatre. Theatre is a very generous thing. And I think it's wonderful at this time to bring people in and have them have that experience.

On the one hand, there's the story. On the other hand, you hope that, for two and a half hours, they've been forced to engage with issues and feelings and thoughts and notions - you want people to have pause and think about these things. So it's really gratifying to feel that right now. And being on tour, outside London, and doing something that we are all really passionate about and really engaged in, it's great that we're doing this. I'm pleased that we get to do this.

And finally, how would you describe To Kill a Mockingbird in one word?

Vital.