John Steinbeck was originally going to call his 1937 novella Something that Happened. But he took its final title, Of Mice and Men, from a section of Robert Burns' poem To a Mouse that read: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley". He adapted it into a play the same year. It was a success in both versions, its simple, poignant story resonating with the public.
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Steinbeck drew in part on his own experiences as a hobo in creating George Milton and Lennie Small, two itinerant ranch workers who travel around California during the Great Depression. Lennie is big and strong but child-like and relies on George for protection – from the cruelties of the world and from his own strength and his tendency to get into trouble – and they keep each other going through the hardships of life with companionship and their common dream of saving up enough money to buy a small farm of their own. It's a mutually beneficial friendship: Lennie needs George, but it's also clear that George, for all his occasional bouts of complaining about what he could do if he were alone, needs Lennie, too. Their travelling together is sufficiently unusual to be remarked upon by others, sometimes with wonder, sometimes with suspicion: as for why this is, one character muses, "maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other ..."
When they come to a new ranch, George cautions Lennie to keep his mouth shut and let him do the talking. And for a while it looks as though things might work out: they can work hard, save up a stake, and get themselves that much closer to making their dream a reality. But can their dream withstand the harsh realities of life and the challenges posed by the uncaring, uncomprehending men on the ranch?
Independent Sydney theatre company Sport for Jove is bringing its production of Steinbeck's play to Canberra, the first time one of its plays has been performed outside NSW since it was formed in 2009 by Damien Ryan. It started as a suburban theatre company and now has its base in the Seymour Centre.
General manager Steven Tait says the opportunity to come to Canberra came about last year – there was a space in the Playhouse and Ryan's work with Bell Shakespeare was well known here even if Sport for Jove was not.
"We don't have a presence in Canberra. They're taking a show on blind faith that we're able to do it justice."
Still, there's plenty of pedigree – and a couple of prominent Canberra links. Sport for Jove has many productions to its credit and several awards and Ryan has directed Bell Shakespeare productions that have come to Canberra including Henry V.
This production of a classic 20th-century story has been directed by Iain Sinclair, who established the award-winning Elbow Theatre Company in Canberra and has also worked with the Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company and Belvoir, among others.
Another Canberra connection comes in the form of John McNeill, who plays Carlson, one of the ranch hands, whom he calls "a hard pragmatic man". McNeill says he read the novel as a teenager and was very moved by it. He thinks one of the messages of the story – whether as book or play – is that "the more we understand each other the more we will be kind to each other", even if the characters mostly haven't figured out how to do that – including Carlson, who's responsible for a premeditated act of cruelty. It's an understandable one, in context, but like much else in the play it displays a terrible lack of empathy.
The Queensland-born McNeill came to Canberra to work as a physical education teacher at Melba High School in 1978 and eventually became an education officer at the Australian Institute of Sport. He became involved in acting with Canberra Repertory Society – his first show was She Stoops to Conquer in 1990 – and eventually he decided to pursue it as a career, amassing a long list of credits on stage and television.
Andrew Henry plays Lennie and Anthony Gooley plays George. They first acted together in a production of another classic American drama, Arthur Miller's All My Sons, in 2013 and earlier this year Henry directed Gooley in a more recent US work, Lyle Kessler's Orphans. Both actors have won Sydney Theatre Awards: Henry for Howie the Rookie and Gooley for The Libertine.
Like Sinclair, Henry and Gooley are fans of American drama for what Gooley calls its "bold drama and vocal attack" and Henry was instrumental in persuading Sport for Jove, which he calls "one of the boldest independent theatre companies", to take on the Steinbeck work, seldom professionally performed in Australia. But, even those who haven't read or seen it, often have some familiarity with it; as Gooley says, "People have an image of the big guy and the little guy."
Henry believes Of Mice and Men, an American play from the 1930s, still has a lot to say to 21st-century Australia, "about how we unfairly treat and sometimes badly attack minorities and how we view them and judge them and make no effort to understand them".
One of the major themes of the work is loneliness – George and Lennie have each other to depend on but many of the other characters find themselves isolated and spiritually bereft, existing but not really living.
Curley's wife, is never known as anything else, not even having a name of her own. She is the only woman in the play and, like George and Lennie, has her own dream, of being in the movies. But she gave it up to marry a rancher's son who treats her badly.
Candy, the one-handed old man with only an ageing, smelly dog for companionship, also feels lonely and vulnerable, wondering when his meagre contribution to the ranch will be deemed superfluous and he will be sent packing. And Crooks, the crippled African-American stablehand, is denied even the rough camaraderie of the bunkhouse because of his race and lives in a nook alongside the horses with only his books for company. As he says, " I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick."
Gooley, 33, grew up in Mudgee, the youngest of five children. He initially studied journalism but found himself drawn to acting. He graduated from NIDA in 2007 and since then has worked regularly on stage. Among his roles was Biff in Death of a Salesman with Sean Taylor and Jackie Weaver.
Henry, 27, is from Lithgow and was cast in his first professional show. The Chronic Ills of Robert Zimmerman AKA Bob Dylan (A Lie) when he was 18 at the Old Fitzroy Theatre, which would reappear in his future. He won a Glugs Award for his role as Chris Keller in All My Sons. Henry was last seen on stage in Canberra at The Street Theatre playing the title role in Frankenstein. In 2011 he undertook a summer residency at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre and now he co-runs the Old Fitz.
Others in the cast include former child actor Andre de Vanny as the aggressive Curley and veteran Terry Serio who does double duty, playing the boss of the ranch and also providing the atmospheric guitar playing.
As well as the play, Of Mice and Men has been adapted for the cinema – notably in 1939 starring Burgess Meredith as George and Lon Chaney Jr as Lennie and in 1992 with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich – and for television, and Carlisle Floyd composed an opera based on the story that premiered in 1970. And the title, characters, lines and imagery have embedded themselves in popular culture with references and allusions in Warner Bros cartoons, Stephen King novels and sitcom episodes, to name a few. But despite all the "Which way did he go, George?" gags that it spawned, its dated racial and sexual aspects, and the familiarity of the big guy-little guy dyad that it helped make famous, Of Mice and Men retains its dramatic and emotional power. Everybody can relate to having been an outsider and everybody wants to make connections with people and to see their dreams become reality.
* Ron Cerabona travelled to Sydney as a guest of the Canberra Theatre Centre.
* Of Mice and Men is on at the Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre from August 6 to 8. Tickets $25-$45. Bookings: canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.
