OF MICE AND MEN
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But the story, which Steinbeck adapted for the stage, is now receiving an impressive production by Synergy Theatre Company that exposes a deeper Steinbeck, one fully engaged in adult concerns. His primary concern is the plight of the weak and the vulnerable. The play is set primarily in the bunkhouse and barn of a ranch in the Salinas Valley of California, where Steinbeck himself worked as a bindle stiff–a low-paid hand. The program even contains a quote from Steinbeck that sounds like a certificate of authenticity: “I was a bindle-stiff myself for quite a spell. I worked in the same country that the story is laid in. The characters are composites to a certain extent. Lennie was a real person. . . I worked along side him for many weeks.”
Lennie and George have been friends since boyhood. They travel together, moving from ranch to ranch to scrounge a living–a hard life made more difficult by Lennie’s penchant for getting into trouble. When the play opens, the two are on the lam from a previous job; Lennie, who is huge and enormously strong, was accused of rape because he tried to feel the pretty flowered dress a young woman was wearing. Chased by men carrying shotguns (more foreshadowing), they hid in an irrigation ditch until nightfall and then fled.
Craig Martin makes Lennie painfully vivid. Yet he also conveys the fundamental dignity of this awkward man-child, making his plight even more painful to behold. But Martin’s performance as Lennie can’t be viewed apart from Alan Ball’s performance as George. They each draw out and define the personality of the other. George’s decency isn’t clear without Lennie’s vulnerability, and Lennie’s lovable nature isn’t visible without George’s patient caring.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Steve Abrams.
