“A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green.” Who could possibly claim to have completed GCSE English Literature, if they cannot remember this classic opening line?
When I think back to the hours of analysing the imagery, finding quotes to show the theme of loneliness, and researching the Great Depression, it’s clear that John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a novel I know inside out. Our relationship was always an intense mix of love and hate but over the last five years it has drifted from significance. Last night, however, all of my previous emotions were rekindled and, you’ll be pleased to know, I am still an expert on the extensive use of foreshadowing and the theme of hopeless dreams.
What struck me first as I took my seat was the fact the stage curtain was raised already- I wasn’t late –the set was just exposed as people were coming into the theatre. Tumbleweed bushes dominated the space and a crack was present along the ground, through the stage’s centre. As all those who have studied Steinbeck’s novel know, setting description is perhaps his most prominent literary technique. From the outset, I decided I liked the set, and throughout the play I came to like it even more. As George and Lennie emerged from a door in the backdrop (which was projected with the image of a beautiful sky) the relevance of the crack through the stage became clear. At this point, the line became the river which the two men drink out of and set up their camp around- it is the location of the first, hopeful scene and the location of the play’s tragic conclusion.
The programme I was given for the production featured an interview with the designer, Liz Ascroft, who must be highly commended for her ingenious set. According to Liz, the crack in the ground “represents the fault-line in Lennie’s head”. My old English teacher would have loved this, and I loved it too. The design seems to have perfectly captured Steinbeck’s vision of using the natural environment to convey emotions and elements of the plot. The large descriptive paragraphs in the novel were demonstrated by single images of the sky on the backdrop – which changed dramatically in colour between the first scene (hopeful blues and pinks) and the ending (a setting sun – you all remember that metaphor). I left the performance, struck, by the intelligence of the set design which captured my imagined environment perfectly.
The relationship between Lennie and George is always critically discussed but was portrayed really interestingly within this production. George (William Rodell) was softer than he seems in the book, which was emphasised through his presence during the scene with Crooks (one of the few differences with the novel). He appeared very affectionate towards Lennie; embracing him when he got upset and kissing his head in excitement over their future plot of land. The actor playing Lennie, Kristian Phillips, had great energy which is definitely necessary for this role. Often his childlike comments had the audience laughing, which I found quite odd. Perhaps this was because of my intense history of analysing every single character in Of Mice and Men, but the comic effect with which some of the lines were delivered and the sometimes, panto-style movements on the part of a character who clearly has mental health problems, didn’t sit quite right with me. On the other hand, it made Lennie into even more of an endearing character which emphasised the tragic ending.
In terms of the acting overall, my biggest concern was the attempted American accents. Most were seriously cringe-worthy and by the end some of the characters gave up and reverted back to English (Curley’s wife sounded Scottish at one point). Whilst it may come across as petty, the failed attempts to adopt an American twang did have an effect on the believability of the performance and it was harder to be convinced by the action taking place when you didn’t quite understand everything that was said. In fact, after a while I became so fixated on who was and wasn’t speaking with an American accent that I wrote a list down in the theatre; Lennie, George and Carlson (Neil McKinven) were the only ones who stayed American throughout (in case you were wondering).
The set made this production; (as well as the inclusion of a live dog, sad as this element of the plot turns out to be) truly capturing the essence of Steinbeck’s book and adding another dimension to the plot which was, at times, poorly acted. However, for most of the play I was too busy reminiscing on my GCSE days to care all that much about this. The overall performance was entertaining and the ending, whilst its build up was not entirely satisfactory, still achieved its shocking purpose. I am glad I experienced this blast to the past, and if you were as emotionally invested in secondary school English as I was, you would have felt similarly blown away.
