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Theatre listings >
Of Mice and Men
- Tour.
Playwright - adapted by John Steinbeck from his novel of the same
name.
Director - Jonathan Church.
Designer - Simon Higlett.
Lighting Designer - Tim Mitchell.
Composer - John Tams.
Company - Birmingham
Repertory Theatre in assoc. with The
Touring Consortium.
Cast - here .
Venue - King's Theatre Edinburgh.Leven
St
0131 529 6000
New Secure 72 hr email booking + info available at www.eft.co.uk
Dates - 11
- 15 March at 7:30pm Mats Thurs & Sat at 2:30pm
Tour Dates and Times - here
.
Seen to review at Kings Theatre Edinburgh.
Run Time - 2hours 25 mins including 15 mins interval.
Reviewer - Thelma Good .
This intense experience.
You may know Matthew Kelly from the Telly but on the boards in
Of Mice and Men he is an actor of considerable range and power. Don't
miss the opportunity to see this production, Kelly is not the only delight
either, in this its only Scottish dates. Jonathan Church has directed
this intense production giving us an experience all too rare in theatre
but so worth the wait. It rightly received a very, enthusiastic welcome
from the hard to please Edinburgh audience. They can sure recognise 5
stars plus when they see it.
When it starts two down at heel men appear at the back of the stage,
one is very tall, the other short. They've come to take another job on
another ranch. Something bad happened in the last town. But George, George
Costigan, is keeping Lennie's, Matthew Kelly, spirits up though
the big guy can't keep much in his head. Lennie is a heartbreaking giant,
not because he's good looking he's not, nor because he's got a childlike
mind but because he needs George so much. Lennie "likes to pet pretty
things," as George says "we all like to do that."
Set in the vast farmlands of Northern California where farm hands practise
segregation in the bunk house. Crooks, named because of his crooked back,
is the nigger, as they called people of colour back then, in the barn
near the manure heap. Curley has got out of the bunkhouse, he's got a
wife who's as misplaced as a martini on a deal table. She's quite an eyeful
and Curley having hooked her doesn't trust her attraction to him. Like
a sole woman on a ship, she's awful lonely.
Another old and injured farmhand, Candy, separated from his smelly old
dog, gravitates to the only men who are buddies, the newly arrived Lennie
and George. It's wild out in the sticks with guns and jealousies. But
all the while George is still talking to Lennie about the wonderful small
place they're going to have, living on the fat of the land. Lennie is
going to try and be good.
Steinbeck's adaptation of his novel is as vast in scope as a prairie,
and like an unbroken horse it whips and turns, packing a story about men
and mice and how hard it is to do good when you're nearly on your own,
into a play which takes place over a highly fraught four nights and three
days. And the performances from Matthew Kelly and George Costigan
supported by a cast, from nearly all of whom you can smell the sweat of
hard lives, or in Curley's wife's case her fancy perfume, will linger
long in memories.
© Thelma Good 11 March 2003. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Cast:
George - George Costigan, Lennie - Matthew Kelly, Candy - Daivd Sterne,
The Boss - Nick Stringer, Curley - John Flitcroft, Curley's Wife - Joanne
Moseley, Silm - Julian Protheroe, Carlson - Neil Phillips, Whit - Tom
Silburn, Crooks - Tyrone Huggins and Ranch Hands - Andy Chaplin and Philip
Bulock.
Tour Details of Birmingham Repertory Theatre's
production of Of Mice and Men.
Tour continues after its dates at Edinburgh's Kings Theatre to
18 - 22 March at Poole, Lighthouse 01202 685 222.
24 - 29 March at Eastbourne Devonshire Park Theatre 01323 412 000.
31 March - 5 April at Malvern Festival Theatre 01684 892 277.
8 - 12 April at Salford The Lowry Centre 0161 876 2000.
22 - 26 April at Birmingham Repertory Theatre 0121 236 4455.
29 April - 3 May at Nottingham Theatre Royal 0115 989 5555.
5 - 10 May at Plymouth Theatre Royal 01752 267 222.
13 - 17 May at Richmond Theatre 020 8940 0088.
Tour ends.
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