Photo Douglas McBrideIn Steinbeck’s gripping masterpiece, two migrant field workers travel through California in search of their very own piece of the American Dream. Read more …
Armed with nothing but hope, and the dream of one day living and working on their own land, George and his childishly innocent companion Lennie start work on a ranch.
New friendships are made and at first life looks good, until gentle Lennie, unaware of his own immense strength, unwittingly shatters their dreams in one disturbingly tragic act.
Dove’s production under Colin Richmond’s towering set is a traditional and at times powerful version of the Steinbeck original, but its intimacy and subtlety is at times overshadowed by the expanse of the staging and direction.
As a director, Dove finds strength in his understanding for the downtrodden American working man, yet, as strong a telling as this is, there isn’t the electricity that marks the best of Steinbeck.
The show holds together, but its stories don’t come to life or pack the emotional punch they ought to.
All this is beautifully realised on Colin Richmond's wood-lined shack of a set, with William Ash's George and Steve Jackson's Lennie a perfectly pitched double act that never over-sentimentalises Lennie's slow-wittedness.
A taut, intense production that likewise manages to combine the specific with the mythic, conveying Steinbeck’s classic as a vivid, parable-like story whose central message holds hope and despair in a delicate balance.
There isn’t a balanced enough exploration of John Macauley’s Crooks and some deliveries just feel clumsy, caricatured and thorny. This isn’t to say Dove’s play is weak; he has translated Steinbeck for the stage quite efficiently, it just lacks the energy and authority needed to support such a superior tale.
A theatrical experience that is sometimes almost overwhelming, in its sheer storytelling power.
If the emotional impact of the whole piece is slight, the aftertaste left by the conclusion of this sorry tale is quietly shocking.
Another excellent Lyceum staging of an American classic.
The fact that people left the theatre crying is less a compliment to the production but more to Steinbeck; this story is both timeless and powerful.
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Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh from Friday February 17, 2012, until Saturday March 17, 2012. More info: www.lyceum.org.uk
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