Steinbeck's classic novel isn't entirely a natural for theatre adaptation (in the way that, say, "Of Mice and Men" absolutely is) - it moves over one and a half thousand miles from Oklahoma to California, it splits focus between a number of different members of the Joad family, and much of it takes place on a small overladen truck. And Frank Galati's adaptation doesn't entirely solve this - there's still a lot of Joads to keep track of, not all of whom really get fully fleshed out. There are also a couple of places where it feels repetitious - the Joads are warned twice what will await them on the California fruit farms, then it's enacted on them - and having ensemble members play similar roles in each of these sequences only emphaises it here - it doesn't come across so much as foreshadowing as "haven't we seen this scene before?"
There's moments of glory in this production, but there's also moments of messyness. Much of the ensemble work is unfocussed - action happening everywhere that means whatever the main story is gets lost - and there's a lot of physical props that means that, when actions require miming (in the burial and flood sequences, for example), we're stuck in a no-man's land between literalism and symbolism. The Joad's truck takes up so much stage space that there's no sense these people are crammed in together - everybody has plenty of space to spread out in comfort.
At the same time, there are moments that do play like gangbusters, particularly the famous "I'l be there" sequence between Tom and Ma Joad late in the play. Plus you get Amy Dunham singing "Down in the River to Pray" in that heartbreaking voice of hers. And those are both worth seeing. I just wish the rest wasn't so damn scrappy.
No comments:
Post a Comment