Of Mice and Men
At
Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company
(Steppenwolf Theatre Company Website)
1650 North Halsted Street
Chicago, Illinois 60614
312.335.1650
By
John Steinbeck
(John Steinbeck Bio)
April 21 – May 10, 2009

Martha Lavey: Artistic Director
David Hawkanson: Executive Director
Young Adults Artistic Director: Hallie Gordon
Director: Michael Patrick Thornton
Scenic Design: Courtney O’Neill
Costume Design: Branimira Ivanova
Lighting Design: Charles Cooper
Original Music and Sound Design: Miles Polaski
Fight Choreographer: John Tovar
Stage Manager: Kathleen Petroziello
Communications Director: David Rosenberg

Featuring:
Robert Breuler, Robert Belushi, Emanueal Buckley,
Ron Butts, Paul D'Addario, James D. Farruggio,
Jessie Fishger, Richard Henzel, Keith Kupferer, Guy Massey

Susan Weinrebe
April 25, 2009

“To dream the impossible dream” might be the sub-title of Steinbeck’s slice of Depression era story, Of Mice and Men. That is part of what makes it the perfect play for a mature teen audience and gives them lots to chew on as part of the Steppenwolf for Young Adults Programs.

Of Mice and Men has plenty of ingredients that are familiar themes for a teen audience: Outsiders who rely on one another’s friendship. Check! A bully and a victim! Check! Yearning and rejection. Check! Judgmental peers. Check! Idealistic plans for the future. Check! Small, cute animals. Check, check, check!

The well-known story, of course, centers on George and Lennie, two rootless guys “on the bum”, who travel from farm to farm as temporary workers. With their worldly goods packed into bindlestiffs, they are much like scores of other men during the Great Depression who lived by daily toil and labored until better times came.

For George and Lennie though, better times are a mantra of home and hope told over and over by George to his child-like companion. They will have a little farm of their own where they can grow the food they need. They will raise chickens and Lenny can have rabbits. They will not be beholden to anyone. It will be their haven.

But this modest slice of Paradise eludes them. There was trouble in the last place they stopped, and they had to run for their lives. With the mental development of a very young child, Lennie doesn’t understand social boundaries or even that his immense strength can injure when he intends only affection. This is the problem the two carry with them wherever they roam.

The feeling of a workshed imparted by a spare set conveys a bleak and sweat-infused aura to a place peopled by men who break their backs to earn their keep. The life of a migrant is hard, and the crew of men who labor on the ranch, bucking barley or as mule skinners, are a hard lot by the values of our present day.

Candy, played by Richard Henzel in perfect casting, is a broken-down guy who lost his hand in a farm accident. Unlike his beloved dog, taken out and shot because it is old and smelly and good for nothing, he knows that he won’t be given the same mercy when he no longer can work. He’ll just be fired. Henzel captures age and garrulousness in posture and demeanor while letting us see the pitiful hope that still sparks in his character.

James D. Farruggio, one of the most natural actors seen in a while, is a good fit with his character, Slim. His stature, good looks, and easy-going smile give calmness to a part that is a fulcrum for the others. Though he fits in with hardness of the life, wrangling his team of mules, overseeing a crew of rough men, and matter of factly drowning the smaller pups in the litter his dog just slang, Farruggio smoothly conveys the ultimate decency and leadership of Slim.

Full-bodied and drawling in a lazy and twangy way that will not be denied, Robert Breuler, as Carlson, plays his part hypnotically. It’s fascinating to watch him so seductively always come down on the side of meanness.

As for the leads, Paul D’Addario as George and Keith Kupferer as Lennie are well matched physically for their parts. D’Addario is smaller and filled with nervous energy, and Kupferer, aided by great padding in his jacket, does indeed look like a mountain of a man. He captures the diction and gestures of a person with developmental disabilities who struggles to speak, remember, and even control his gestures.

Of Mice and Men endures not only because it is a set piece of an important era in American history, but because it is a great presentation of human themes that remains unbounded by the limits of a particular time.

Keith Kupferer and Paul D’Addario
in "Of Mice and Men"
Courtesy of Peter Coombs

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Paul D’Addario and Keith Kupferer
in "Of Mice and Men"
Courtesy of Peter Coombs

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Richard Henzel in "Of Mice and Men"
Courtesy of Peter Coombs

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Jessie Fisher, Richard Henzel,
Paul D’Addario in "Of Mice and Men"
Courtesy of Peter Coombs

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Paul D’Addario, Guy Massey,
James D. Farruggio in "Of Mice and Men"
Courtesy of Peter Coombs

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Richard Henzel and Emanueal Buckley
in "Of Mice and Men"
Courtesy of Peter Coombs

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Richard Henzel, Emanueal Buckley,
Paul D’Addario, Keith Kupferer
in "Of Mice and Men"
Courtesy of Peter Coombs

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Keith Kupferer and Jessie Fisher
in "Of Mice and Men"
Courtesy of Peter Coombs

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Paul D’Addario and Robert Belushi
in "Of Mice and Men"
Courtesy of Peter Coombs

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For more information, contact Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower at zlokower@bestweb.net