Writer: John Steinbeck
Director: Iqbal Khan
Lennie isn’t like the other guys. Sure, he’s big and strong – heck, he’s the strongest – and he works better than most guys on the ranch. But there’s something wrong in his head. In the future, they’ll say he has 
learning difficulties or maybe some syndrome or other. For now, in 1937 California, folks just call him simple or an imbecile. Or nuts. Luckily, he has George to look out for him. It’s an unlikely partnership, George is sharp as a tack. Trouble is, Lennie just doesn’t know his own strength. He loves soft things, how they feel in his fingers, especially animals like mice or pups, but somehow his affection leads to clumsiness and, well, somehow they just wind up getting killed.
George and Lennie had to leave the last ranch they worked at when Lennie just couldn’t bear to let go of a lady’s beautiful red dress, scaring her and leading her to cry rape. So they find themselves starting again, with just their dreams of living in a small house off the fat of the land to sustain them.
As the lights go down the huge Rep stage is filled with straight lines and harsh lighting. Despite the set being largely empty, forced perspective from the set elements makes us feel we’re in the great outdoors, a triumph of set and lighting design by Ciarán Bagnall. The events with the red dress are beautifully – almost balletically – presented, with the red contrasting sharply with the monochrome surround and pools of bright light cheek by jowl with deep shadows. It’s only a few minutes in, but already we know this Is going to be something special. There’s a memorable soundscape, too, developed by Elizabeth Purnell following painstaking research into the sounds of the time and place to inform her own compositions.
And so we meet George and Lennie on the next step of their journey towards their seemingly impossible dream. And it becomes clear that all the characters need a dream, an aspiration, to take the edge off the harsh reality of life in the great depression. Candy, the ageing handyman, is drawn into their dream too after his decrepit dog (in this production, provided through brilliant puppetry) is put down. Descending into loneliness, he offers George his life savings if he can join them; suddenly their dream might yet be a reality. We also meet Curley, the boss’s son, and his new wife. Now he’s managed to snare her, he’s less interested and she is desperately lonely. Her outlet is flirting with the men (to Curley’s disgust) and her now-shattered dreams of Hollywood. After all, that guy was in pictures wasn’t he? And he did say she was a natural.
And there’s Crooks – a shambling old man who isn’t allowed in the bunkhouse because he’s black. Even as he pours scorn on George and Lennie’s dream, he can’t help being drawn in and asking if he can go too.
Director Iqbal Khan has conjured up an immensely powerful production in which we watch the powerplays between characters and empathise with the lives of quiet desperation and loneliness that most characters endure. George is brought to us by Tom McCall who perfectly embodies his conflicting emotions with Lennie. He’s mostly under control, so when he does lose his temper, Lennie, and we, truly take notice. Wiliam Young plays Lennie. Young himself has learning difficulties having been born with agenesis of the corpus callosum, and this brings an extra dimension to the honesty of his portrayal. This Lennie really is the childlike Lennie of the page, trying his best to understand even as he destroys the things he cares about in his awkwardness.
It’s notable that Curley’s wife doesn’t have a name. To the hands on the ranch, she’s a cypher, an object; it’s no surprise that Lennie doesn’t quite know how to react to her. Maddy Hill brings a humanity to her as we see her anguish at the life choices she’s been pushed into by circumstances. Leo Ravitz is a believable Candy. He’s nailed the look and sound of the old-timer, while Reece Pantry makes the cynical (but also aspirational) Crooks sympathetic. Riad Richie’s Curley struts about, always the little man looking to act big. Richie lets us see a hint of the vulnerability Curley must suppress, as well as his reactions to his wife’s flirtatiousness.
Of Mice and Men remains a classic with themes that continue to resonate today, even if we prefer to think we’ve moved on from the attitudes endemic over 80 years ago. This is the Rep doing what it does best, innovating, challenging, entertaining. It’s a must-see.
Runs until: 8 April 2023 and on tour
The Reviews Hub Score
Innovating, Challenging, Entertaining
