Get Out More..........................Theatre Review

GRAPES OF WRATH

02-11-2009

Depression era drama gets a re-working for the recession. Paula Elenor checks out the recent Rep production.

This is a bumper touring production! A cast of 20, including “names” Sorcha Cusack, Christopher Timothy and Oliver Cotton, pulled out the stops to do justice to the moral imperative of Steinbeck’s epic novel depicting the suffering and dignity of common folk. It’s a huge investment on the part of the English Touring Theatre and, on the whole, I would say it was worth it.

This is the story of the Joad family (12 + one hanger on) crossing the American continent in a dilapidated old jalopy, heading for a new life in the “promised land of milk and honey” – California – and hopefully, economic independence – kick-started by the money earned from fruit picking.

They are forced onto the road by the bank, foreclosing their mortgage in the wake of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl disaster, when a once fertile land, literally blew away as a result of drought and over-farming.

But the Joads are only one family of thousands migrating west on Route 66 – one of the largest mass movements of people in modern history. When they all converge on the fruit farms of California, the reality is worse than what they left behind. They are at the mercy of unscrupulous sharks and a hostile population who see the “Okes” as a threat. The ghastly warnings of the “Man Going Back” in the first half are predictably proved to be “true” for the Joads as well as for him.

Adapting this novel for the stage, a writer has to deal with the problem of how to keep the novel’s feel of a matter-of-fact chronicle – the story of ordinary people coping in the most extraordinary circumstances; they just keep going on and on, whatever physical hardships they endure – without rendering the story commonplace. Award-winning writer, Frank Galati, has solved the problem – just about. It is quite a balancing act in places.

Some of the performances have been deliberately understated and the show did have a rather flat feel to it. However, I liked it. Moments of unexpected kindness and decency stand out all the more and are as commonplace as the casual cruelty and meanness the “Okes” routinely have to deal with.

The set was fantastic – skewed farm buildings and make-shift shelters – intensified the underlying sense of dislocation – moral and physical. Colourful period billboards projected over the broken down buildings promising an American idyll of material plenty, ironically highlighted the differences between the dream and the reality.

The water feature front stage was used powerfully as a complex visual symbol of renewal and threat and echoed the religious allusions in the dialogue.

The show was structured for an ensemble and it was right that no one actor took the limelight. However, I would have liked more of the male characters to stand out from the crowd a little – especially the character of Tom Joad.

In spite of the ensemble ethos, I must single out the impressive performance of Sorcha Cusack as Ma Joad. Her character is the lynchpin of the drama – in terms of plot and theme, and she simply made the night for me at The Rep for me. The English Touring Theatre’s production may not be to everyone’s taste. But it’s power and resonance cannot be denied.

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