Of Mice and Men

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating, we are blessed to have these live performances filmed and to be able to see stage productions we otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Director Shapiro warns in the accompanying mini-doc that if you don’t like Steinbeck it will be a nightmare. Fortunately Steinbeck is my all time favourite writer, and this play (adapted in 1937 from his novella) resonates as much in the world of today, as it did in the Great Depression.

At its core is the loneliness of survival, the need for connection, the essential caring nature of men who have no reason to believe in life, and yet do.

Steinbeck’s story of two drifters, one a charmer, the other a giant of a simpleminded man who doesn’t know his own strength, deals in huge sweeping concepts and exquisite details of minutiae, reaches deep into our guts and our souls. We are human, even when the world around us seems oblivious to the fact. Some of us may be misfits, and we are drawn to other misfits – but we all belong somewhere.

Shapiro’s vision is breathtaking – even such things as blocking the personal space around the men thrown together in a bunkhouse. Todd Rosenthal’s set…the brooding brown sky, the endless wasteland …creates the desolation of the world without and within. Japhy Weiderman’s lighting slowly adds warmth in shades of tan and amber, and David Singer’s haunting shades of Ry Cooder in the underscore, all add to the perfection. And then there is the superb acting.

James Franco as the charming, but guarded, George; and Chris O’Dowd as Lenny, the adorable brain-damaged child/man, create for us a relationship so poignant, so real, so heartbreaking that – if you don’t know the denouement of the story and steel yourself  in advance for the final moments – will leave you shattered.

O’Dowd is simply extraordinary – a performance of rare depth and understanding. Much like Cumberbatch’s monster in Frankenstein (another of the NTL series) he totally engages us with his childlike humanity, and allows us to see how we can be drawn to good, endearing, men who may still terrify us. What we wouldn’t see in the theatre, tiny facial expressions, are captured on film …the vacancy in his eyes, the confused expression as he struggles to comprehend things beyond him, the desperate need for George’s approval, are captured by the camera. Like Steinbeck’s writing, O’Dowd’s performance is a huge landscape drawn boldly, yet full of tiny jewels - subtle moments of perfection.

Franco has the broader, swaggering role, yet approaches it with finesse and truth. He is almost dismissive in explaining why he and Lenny hang out together, wonderfully inarticulate about expressing deep feelings and yet personifying the need to be needed; to be more than just a solitary man.

The ensemble cast are nothing short of marvellous. Jim Norton as Candy – the old one handed man forced to let his dog be shot just to remain part of the bunkhouse – is particularly moving. And Ron Cephas Jones, as the intelligent and well-read black man who isn’t allowed to consort with the white men, brings dignity and compassion to the role. Leighton Meester is the only female in the cast, but she personifies Steinbeck’s tragic heroine archetype. All of these characters have small dreams; they all want just a little more; they deserve it; but the truth is they will somehow survive without the dream ever becoming reality, and that is both their triumph and their tragedy.

We all need to open ourselves up to touching and being touched by someone else’s life. Steinbeck understood that truth more than 75 years ago, and it is just as true today. This production only has a limited cinema release. See it if you possibly can. It will touch you deeply.

Coral Drouyn

Images: Chris O'Dowd and James Franco; James Franco and Jim Norton, & Chris O'Dowd and Leighton Meister. Photographer: Richard Phibbs.

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