BWW Reviews: OF MICE AND MEN, Birmingham Rep Theatre, October 14 2014

John Steinbeck published the epic Of Mice and Men in 1937. It was an instant success and in the same year, the novel was picked up by George S Kaufman who immediately bought the stage rights. Steinbeck and Kaufman worked together to create the stage play and it was soon on Broadway where it played for a very respectable 207 performances. It also won the New York Drama Critics Circle award for 'Best Play' in 1938. Shortly after this, Of Mice and Men opened at London's Gate Theatre and the rest is history.

This brand new production is presented by Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company and The Touring Consortium. The theatre's Artistic Director, Roxana Silbert, directs the play and has created a spectacular vision alongside designer Liz Ascroft. It is not a busy set but the main playing space has a wooden floor with a sky projected upstage and a solitary door upstage centre. The crack in the flooring is a practical stream of water but, on deeper reflection, can represent character Lennie's ongoing mental state. There are also some mid stage travellers made up of gauze and truss to create the barn in the latter part of Act One. Another visually pleasing aspect of the set is the barley chute in Act Two. Simon Bond's naturalistic lighting design is perfect to accompany the setting.

An interesting decision was to keep the wings entirely open to audience view. Initially whether this lent anything to the play, I wasn't sure but it definitely did not hinder the action. With the play set amongst the Great Depression and with millions of American citizens unemployed, George and Lennie are travelling from ranch to ranch to earn what money they can to enable them to live their American dream. The openness of sweeping fields and landscapes could be a reason why the creative team chose not to close in the stage. The content is claustrophobic as it is so with this in mind, the decision was an inspired one.

The incidental and transitional music is created by several of the actors and composed by sound designer Nick Powell. This allowed easy flow between scenes along with the onstage choreography by the performers and Stage Management.

An unbelievable performance is given by Benjamin Dilloway as Lennie. He is very much a gentle giant and nowadays would probably be on the autistic spectrum, although then he was just described as being a bit simple and not very bright. A lot of research has clearly been done by Dilloway into this way of behaving and his body language is excellent. You could even see his thought processes and this makes it fascinating as an audience member to watch. The casting of Dilloway is absolute perfection.

Lennie's best friend and companion, George, is played by Michael Legge and again a solid performance is given. Both Legge and Dilloway compliment each other brilliantly well and it is more than apparent how much George cares for Lennie - even when the ultimate decision has to be made, he is doing it out of love. The whole cast are terrific but these men more than carry the story.

Of Mice and Men plays at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre until 1 November 2014.

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