DUNCAN Preston has returned to the role of small-town lawyer Atticus Finch five years after appearing in what he called a “not-very-well-directed production” at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds.

Pinpointing how he hoped Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden would improve upon that 2006 show, he said he wanted it to be more pointed, more focused, to be more specific at every single junction of this race relations story. “I want the audience to be looking at the right things,” he said.

What we are observing is a classic tale of a wronged victim in Thirties’ Maycomb, Alabama, in America’s Deep and deeply divided South, where Preston’s progressive lawyer defends black labourer Tom Robinson (Cornelius Macarthy) against the charge of raping Mayella (Clare Corbett), as accused by her bigoted father, Bob Ewell (Mark White).

Ironically, Cruden has delivered one of his more cluttered productions in terms of its marriage of design, video projections and filmic Christopher Madin score, coupled with that rarity, a big, big cast of 21. (Interestingly, chatting with a freelance director afterwards, he said he had been working on a version with only nine actors) The opening scene in Liam Doona’s all-wooden design is grand in scale but not wholly successful: actors stand behind a wall of white, wooden slats, through which you can glimpse another such wall and, behind that a screen, depicting faces and moving bodies, whose voices are muffled. Is that deliberate? Who can tell?

However, one immediate improvement from Michael Buffong’s production is the switch of narrator from kindly Miss Maudie to an older version of Atticus’s daughter, Scout. By now she has grown into Jean Louise Finch (Jacqueline Wood) as she looks back on her tomboy younger self (Grace Rowe), through whose eyes Harper Lee’s novel unfolded.

This does focus the show better, as Preston had wished, but the projections run counter to this , their use reminiscent of some of Pilot Theatre’s more overloaded, early multi-media performances at the Theatre Royal. Maybe this device is designed to appeal to the set-text school parties that fill plenty of the seats, as they do for Pilot’s shows, and yet its impact is limited.

The more the spotlight in Christopher Sergel’s stage adaptation falls on the flesh-and-blood interplay between characters, the better, hence the second half is far more rewarding when the courtroom drama as its peak.

Like the production, Preston’s considered, principled Atticus takes time to warm up despite his instant physical presence, and it is the performances of the young cast members, Rowe’s fast-learning Scout, her brother, Jem (Matthew Pattimore), and friend Dill (Graeme Dalling), that provide the energy. White’s racist Ewell stands out, Macarthy’s bewildered Tom brings poignancy to his desperate plight, and Corbett maximises her cameo.

The Southern accent proves a troubling challenge for some, however, and overall To Kill A Mockingbird falls short of high expectations.

To Kill A Mockingbird, York Theatre Royal and Touring Consortium Theatre Company, York Theatre Royal, until February 26, then on tour. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk