For several years, two theater companies have waged a legal war over which adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee’s classic coming-of-age novel about Southern racism and injustice in the 1930s, could be staged in smaller theaters across the United States.
Would it be the script by Christopher Sergel, which adheres closely to Lee’s text and has been a staple in community and school theaters for decades?
Or would it be a revisionist version, written by Aaron Sorkin and produced by the theater powerhouse Scott Rudin, which had its Broadway debut in 2018 and deviates significantly from the novel?
A verdict in that debate came last week when a Federal District Court judge in New York decreed that the Sorkin adaptation — which expands the roles of two Black characters in the novel — could be staged in venues throughout the country.
Now, drama teachers and theater directors may have to choose between contrasting adaptations of a classic American novel, the story of a heroic lawyer and a falsely accused Black man that has mesmerized generations of high schoolers since it was published in 1960.
Judge Denise L. Cote determined that production of the Sorkin version, which was produced by Rudin’s Atticus Limited Liability Company, did not infringe on any interest held by the Dramatic Publishing Company, which contended that its Sergel script was the only one that could be performed in most theaters that are not part of Broadway, the West End or a national tour.
“Atticus and Aaron Sorkin have the right, in relation to Dramatic, to present any and all performances of the Sorkin play,” Judge Cote, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, wrote in an Aug. 1 ruling that closed a lawsuit by Atticus.
In previous rulings this year, the judge had said that “Dramatic does not currently possess exclusive rights to perform amateur theatrical productions” of the novel, citing the Copyright Act of 1976 and a contract with Dramatic that Lee terminated in 2011.
Lawyers for Dramatic declined to comment, and lawyers for Atticus did not respond to requests for comment.
The legal controversy stemmed partly from a 1969 agreement between Lee and Dramatic in which the novelist gave the company “the complete right throughout the world” to create an adaptation that would come with exclusive rights for staging in amateur theaters, including high school and university theaters, community theaters and drama associations.
For decades, Sergel’s script was the only one staged throughout America, including in Lee’s hometown, Monroeville, Ala.
But in 2011, Lee notified Dramatic that she would be terminating their earlier agreement. Four years later, she entered into a contract with the company Rudinplay that allowed Rudin to create a new adaptation of “Mockingbird”; he turned to Sorkin, a Hollywood writer known for “The West Wing” and “The Social Network.”
Sorkin’s play, which starred Jeff Daniels as the lawyer Atticus Finch, became a $7.5 million production and made its debut on Broadway in December 2018. The play recouped its investment costs in 19 weeks.
In 2019, Rudin’s lawyers, backed by the estate of Lee, who died in 2016, issued cease-and-desist orders to regional theaters, telling them to cancel productions of the Sergel script, citing the new adaptation.
Their reasoning drew on a clause in the 1969 contract between Lee and Dramatic that blocked “Mockingbird” productions within 25 miles of cities that had a population of 150,000 or more in 1960 while a “first-class dramatic play” based on the novel was playing in New York or on tour.
The lawyers forced at least eight theater companies in the United States as well as a British touring production of the play to cancel their productions, causing financial distress in theaters from Buffalo to Salt Lake City.
Dramatic responded by filing an arbitration demand against the Lee estate that claimed it had breached the 1969 agreement by interfering with Dramatic’s licensing contracts.
An arbitrator ruled in Dramatic’s favor last year, ordering the Lee estate to pay more than $2.5 million because it “tortiously interfered with contracts,” primarily “through the estate’s interactions with Rudin.” (Neither Atticus nor Sorkin was a party to the arbitration.)
In the decision, which was confirmed by an Illinois district court and is now being appealed, the arbitrator also said that Dramatic retained worldwide exclusive rights to stage its version of “To Kill a Mockingbird” in non-first-class settings. But in November, Atticus filed its lawsuit, seeking the right to stage Sorkin’s play in all theaters.
