Playwright: John Steinbeck. At: Oak Park Festival Theatre at Austin Gardens, 150 Forest, Oak Park. Phone: 708-445-4440; $25. Runs through: July 10
In the 73 years since John Steinbeck's tale of thwarted plans premiered, its universal appeal has transcended the restrictions of its realistic milieu ( encompassing characters described right down to physical appearance ) to engender a variety of interpretations: star turns in the principal roles, celebrations of male-bonding rites, historical treatises on Depression-era issues. But when your auditorium is a municipal park, replete with airplanes flying overhead, sirens and car-alarms wailing just offstage, fireflies and mosquitoes wafting amid the spectators, and an imminent threat of rain hanging over the entire environmentwell, your range of options are considerably narrowed.
Director Belinda Bremner is savvy enough to know that this is not the occasion for wallowing in actorly "moments.". Instead, she has orchestrated this Oak Park Festival production to reflect the community values shared by all of Steinbeck's characters, whether expressed in a more-social-than-sexual night at a brothel or the compassion shown the owner of a dog facing euthanizationor, alternatively, denied to those isolated by improvidential race, gender or mental capacities. The resulting ensemble-based performance makes for a brisk pace emphasizing the flow of the action as it unfolds over the three days ( you never realized it all happened so fast, did you? ) required for tragedy to befall innocents.
The outdoor setting for this American classic is not without its advantagesamong them, the casting of an eminently stageworthy 10-year-old mixed-breed pooch to play the doomed canine ( who emerges at curtain call to reassure concerned zoophiles ) , and a search for the fugitive Lennie extending into the very corners of Austin Gardensbut the relationship between the protective George and his slow-witted comrade is the crucial factor to the play's success. David Skvarla, in a significant departure from his familiar swashbuckling roles, conveys with uncloying sensitivity the childlike personality beneath Lennie's hulking physique, deftly supported by Kevin Theis, who executes George's expository duties with confident expertise, the latter shared by seasoned trouper William J. Norris as Candy, the choruslike bunkhouse-servant.
Bremner's most innovative contribution, however, is evidenced in Skyler Schrempp's portrayal of Curly's Wife, not as the "tart" that the hostile ranch-hands declare her to be, but as an unaffected farm-girl seeking only company and a kind word in a harsh and lonely world. And in 2010, isolated in our own economic expediencies, isn't that what we all need?