In John Steinbeck’s classic Of Mice and Men, field workers George and Lennie move from farm to farm in Depression-era California with dreams of one day owning their own 10 acres and living off the fat of the land. Clocking in at a little longer than it would take to read the novella, Iqbal Khan’s lucidly and evocatively staged new production, like its source material, contains a reassuring if uneasy conventionality.
There’s little fat in this land: clothes are dusty, and the quenching of literal and metaphorical thirst carries danger. On Ciarán Bagnall’s set, made of the wooden slats of bunk houses and stables, this is a world of toil and rugged, masculine industry, further evoked through Elizabeth Purnell’s compositions which utilise protest and workers’ union songs.
