By Robert W. Bethune
A tragedy is a train wreck that nothing can stop. From the very first scene of Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," now playing at the Stratford Festival, you can't not see this is a tragedy. Even though the specific circumstances that lead to the end often turn to some extent on chance, the fact is that if those particular circumstances had not come to pass, equally efficacious circumstances would have happened in their stead. George and Lenny are just not going to make it in this world.
Graham Greene plays Lenny. Everything about Graham Greene, his size, his solidity, his voice and manner, everything works to his advantage in this role. He shows you every shift and turn of the man's mind.
Nicolas Van Burek plays George. He and Greene are terrific foils for each other. He is small, quick, bright, even cunning. Lenny is George's son, even though George would never be able to figure that out, but Van Burek lets us see that without ever, as it were, letting George see it.
The rest of the cast is equally solid. In particular, Stephen Russell, a long-time Stratford hand, as Slim absolutely lives, breathes and voices the classic ranching man of the Oklahoma and Texas territories. Brian Hamman as Curly is a perfect little micro-Othello, with none of the great man's dignity and every bit of his crazy jealousy.
I fault the play a bit. Granted that George and Lenny repeat themselves because of who Lenny is, there are too many other lines that only repeat what has already been said, and passages that do what has already been done. I fault Martha Henry's direction only in that it doesn't fight that repetition hard enough; too many passages drag.
'Of Mice and Men'
Stratford Festival of Canada at the Tom Patterson Theatre. In repertory, Tues.-Sun., through Sept. 22. Tickets: $40-$108 Canadian. For information: 800-567-1600 or http://www.stratfordfestival.ca.
