[NEohioPAL] Review of GLTG's "Of Mice and Men"

[Bob Abelman]

GLTG makes mostly magic of Mice and Men

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review appeared in the News-Herald 10/30/09

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men was written to be read.

Since its publication in 1937, this brilliantly penned novella has been turned into dramatic stage productions, several films, an Off-Broadway musical and a three-act opera.  However, this classic tale of enduring friendship between the big-bodied, soft-hearted and slow-minded Lennie and his smaller, sharper and more worldly protector George is all about the words. 

Steinbeck's words are simple yet powerful, poetic yet poignant.  They are small, ordinary Everyman words, yet they conjure expansive, colorful imagery about humanity's search for a sense of place and belonging in a cold, cruel world.  

The Geauga Lyric Theater Guild presentation of the play, which opened last weekend, understands this.  Under the kid-gloved direction of David Malinowski, the play's production values are basic, the performances are straightforward and the staging is uncomplicated.  This allows Steinbeck's words to speak for themselves. 

George and Lennie's dream of a little piece of land, with horses, livestock, pet rabbits and a garden of alfalfa, is revealed at the very beginning of the play.  So is the realization that there is no chance that this dream will ever become reality.  Not for these men, who are itinerant, down-on-their-luck, California ranch workers.  Not during this time, which is the Great Depression.

Tim Coles, as George, chews his dialogue carefully and thoroughly.  By doing so, he effectively captures the extreme loneliness and frustration his character endures from his unconditional commitment to Lennie.  At the end of the play, when George must free Lennie and himself from their unbearable burdens, Coles exudes a world-weariness that is palpable from the back row of the theater.

As Lennie, Wayne Howell is a lovable, sympathetic man-child.  The character's overriding goodness and innocence, expressed through the play's purposeful prose, comes through with clarity.  Lennie's subtle intricacies and intimate connectedness with George, which must be relayed during the silences between the dialogue, are not as clear.  

As the story unfolds, the playwright unveils the trapped and tortured souls on the ranch-Candy, a spiritually defeated, disabled old man, and Crooks, a solitary and physically misshapen stable hand-who buy into George and Lennie's alluring but unobtainable dream and make it their own.



Joe Petrolia and Marvin Malloy give flesh to these characters and are wonderful.   The most moving scenes in the play are when Petrolia's Candy finally realizes the folly in the communal dream of a homestead and when Malloy's Crooks, a black man, exposes a form of isolation and loneliness that even George and Lennie cannot imagine.  Jim Shannon, as the foreman, and Aaron Drews and Tony Spexziale, as other farmhands, also turn in fine performances.

A dangerous undercurrent ripples throughout the play, which originates from the ranch-a "bad place" according to Lennie, who senses peril and tragedy from the get-go.  Scenic designer Sean Thompson has built a wonderfully rustic set with bunkhouse and stable walls comprised of long, vertical raw wood planks that appear to imprison the workers and suggest danger around every sharp corner.

The Boss's evil son, Curley, and Curley's sexually charged wife personify this danger, although neither Nate Earley nor Jacinda Sandness comes across as particularly evil or seductive.  Their acting is a bit stilted and, consequently, out of step with the language Steinbeck has provided them.  As a result, there is little tension during the first act struggle between Lennie and Curly, which sets the show's dynamics in motion.  There is little suspense during the second act encounter between Lennie and Curley's wife, which leads to the dramatic climax of the play.

It is during these and other emotionally charged scenes that director Malinowski's soft touch could have been a bit more heavy-handed.  Some classic tear-jerking moments come and go without incident, creating a more somber Of Mice and Men than the playwright may have intended.  

Still, this is a fine GLTG production.  It does justice to this remarkable story and the words produced by its Nobel Prize-winning author.  

Of Mice and Men runs through November 8 at the Geauga Theater, 106 Water Street in Chardon.  For tickets, which range from $13 to $15, call 440-286-2255 or visit www.geugatheater.org.

 

 
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