London-based choreographer Cathy Marston can’t read “Of Mice and Men” without weeping. And without the Joffrey Ballet, she couldn’t create the world premiere ballet of John Steinbeck’s shattering chronicle of Depression-era life.
“I was only 16 or 17 when I read it in secondary school, high school in the UK,” she said on a break during April’s first week of in-person rehearsals. “It’s heart-breaking and heart-warming, all at the same time. I’ve always wanted to do it. But you need just the right company to take it on,” she said.
