To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee’s classic novel from 1960, set in the Depression-era South, is a coming-of-age story, a courtroom drama and a portrait of corrosive racial prejudice. This stage version resonates best during the courtroom scenes. Actors Allen Pontes (as wise, compassionate attorney Atticus Finch), Kelton Howard (the unjustly accused black defendant in a rape case, aware he won’t get a fair trial) and Mark Stone (angry racist Tom Ewell) generate electricity. However, the show’s opening scenes, depicting leisurely everyday life, sometimes turn languid; and the play’s closing confrontation doesn’t deliver quite the chill of tragedy barely averted that it might. It’s best to bring a picnic and enjoy the warm evening air on the grassy terraces at this outdoor show in the foothills.
Main Street Theatre Works, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; $12-$16; Kennedy Mine Amphitheatre, 1105 N. Main Street in Jackson (Amador County); (209) 267-5680. www.mstw.org Through July 19.