A Time to Kill

Reviewed by Lovell Estell III
Theatre 68
Through November 19

It’s likely that many members of the theater-going public have read or heard about John Grisham’s 1989 courtroom thriller, later made into a highly acclaimed movie starring Samuel L. Jackson, Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock. This stage adaptation by Rupert Holmes is often entertaining, but it has more than a few rough edges, starting with a script that could use some judicious trimming.

There’s a lot of comic relief worked into the script (some of it questionable, given the gravitas of the subject matter), and some captivating humorous characters, none more so than the wisecracking old boy, Judge Omar Noose (John William Young), who presides over the trial of Carl-Lee Hailey (Bechir Sylvain), a black man who took justice into his own hands and gunned down the two swamp-trash rednecks who brutally raped and nearly murdered his daughter.

Hailey’s trial in the small town of Clanton, Mississippi pits Carl Lee’s lawyer Jake Brigance (Ian Robert Peterson), his preppy assistant Ellen Roark (Mércedes Manning) and Brigance’s hard-drinking mentor and friend Lucien Wilbanks (a devilishly captivating performance by Paul Thomas Arnold) against sleazy, ambitious D.A. Rufus Buckley (Gregory Thirloway), whose Cheshire-cat smile and unctuous Southern good- old-boy posturing is genuinely unnerving. And of course there’s the Klan, a burning cross, a few intrigues, and even a hint of romance tossed in.

The trial that begins in Act 2 is a ponderous affair that director Ronnie Marmo could have moved along at a much sharper pace. On balance, performances in all the key roles are good and most of the minor ones also. Peterson is overwrought at times (especially true during the closing arguments), but he is nevertheless convincing. Gisla Stringer is terrific in a minor role as Hailey’s wife, Gwen. Danny Cistone’s set design, consisting of shopworn chairs, tables and benches, and a dark, time-weathered walnut paneled floor hits the mark.

Theatre 68, 5112 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 7:30 p.m., Sun., 3 p.m., through November 19; (323) 960-5068 or www.plays411.com/timetokill Running time: two hours and 15  minutes with one ten minute intermission.