Education Resources

Created by Sarah Stephenson

with Kiran Beri, Beth Flintoff, John Good, Erica Wallis and Kitty Parker

Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3

SECTION I: Of Mice and Men – The Novella and its Context

To a Mouse (poem) ............................................................................................................................ 4
The Life of John Steinbeck .................................................................................................................. 5
John Steinbeck in context .................................................................................................................. 8
The Great Depression ......................................................................................................................... 9
Migrant Farm Workers ....................................................................................................................... 13
The Salinas Valley................................................................................................................................ 14

SECTION II: Of Mice and Men – The Production

Turning a novella into a play .............................................................................................................. 16
The characters .................................................................................................................................... 18
Interview with the director ................................................................................................................ 19
Set model photos ............................................................................................................................... 21
Rehearsal diary .................................................................................................................................. 23
Rehearsal photos ................................................................................................................................ 24

SECTION III: Of Mice and Men – Exercise & Assignments

Themes and issues ............................................................................................................................. 23
Tasks ................................................................................................................................................... 23-26

SECTION IV
Contacts .............................................................................................................................................. 27

2
 Introduction
This education pack is designed to support your visit to see Of Mice and Men at Nottingham
Playhouse in 2012.

The pack is aimed primarily at those studying Drama or English, but there are articles that we
hope will be useful for anyone with an interest in the play. Whilst there are some images, the
pack has been deliberately kept simple from a graphic point of view so that most pages can
easily be photocopied for use in the classroom.

Your feedback is most welcome, please email [email protected]

Don’t forget that we offer a large range of Take Part programmes for GCSE students including
our Upstart Work Experience scheme, half-term Youth Theatres and Critics’ Circle groups. We
also offer Shakespeare workshops to schools, post show discussions on all of our Playhouse
productions and masterclasses, pre-show lectures, and additional schools workshops on
productions with educational potential.

Sarah Stephenson
Education Officer

3
 SECTION I
Of Mice and Men: The Novel and its Context

To a Mouse
By Robert Burns (1785)

Wee, sleekit, cowran, tim'rous beastie, An' weary Winter comin fast,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie! An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou need na start awa sae hasty, Thou thought to dwell,
Wi' bickering brattle! Till crash! the cruel coulter past
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee, Out thro' thy cell.
Wi' murd'ring pattle!
That wee-bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
I'm truly sorry Man's dominion Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Has broken Nature's social union, Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
An' justifies that ill opinion, But house or hald.
Which makes thee startle, To thole the Winter's sleety dribble,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion, An' cranreuch cauld!
An' fellow-mortal!
But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane,
I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve; In proving foresight may be vain:
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live! The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
A daimen-icker in a thrave 'S a sma' request: Gang aft agley,
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
An' never miss't! For promis'd joy!

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin! Still, thou art blest, compar'd wi' me!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin! The present only toucheth thee:
An' naething, now, to big a new ane, But Och! I backward cast my e'e,
O' foggage green! On prospects drear!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin, An' forward, tho' I canna see,
Baith snell an' keen! I guess an' fear!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' wast,

The novella's title comes from the poem

To a Mouse (on turning her up in her nest
with the plough) by the Scots poet Robert
Burns (1759-1796)

4
 The Life of John Steinbeck
Steinbeck’s first novel was a historical drama
entitled Cup of Gold, which finally saw the light
of day in 1929. The next year, Steinbeck
married the first of his three wives, Carol
Henning, and in that year, too, he met his
lifelong friend, the marine biologist Edward
Ricketts. The Steinbecks settled in California,
where the writer spent most of his life. His
second novel, The Pastures of Heaven, was
published in 1932, and in 1933 he brought out
a third, To a God Unknown, and two short
stories, later to become part of his collection
The Red Pony, which were published in the
North American Review.

Steinbeck’s second novel to be published was

his first to employ naturalism; and his third
(written before the second), although a
fantasy, is set in his native California, the
John Ernst Steinbeck was born on 27 February background of all his strongest writing. In
1902 in Salinas, a rural settlement in California, 1935, he published Tortilla Flat, about the
which was to be the setting for Of Mice and mistreatment and exploitation of Mexican-
Men. He attended Salinas High School and, in American labourers, a subject still relevant
1920, began intermittent attendance at today. It was an instant success, bringing
Stanford University, where his studies included Steinbeck the financial stability to rely on his
literature and biology. He could not attend full writing for a living, and the fame that, for the
time, as he had to earn his course fees. rest of his life, he was to find difficult to
handle. He was a shy, modest man, who was
His first pieces of writing were published in the embarrassed by publicity and preferred his
Stanford Spectator in 1924. The following year, work to speak for itself.
he left Stanford without a degree and went to
New York, where he worked as a construction The reputation for controversy that this novel
labourer and, briefly, as a reporter on The brought him was confirmed when, in 1937
American. In 1926, he returned to California, (after the appearance of his fifth novel, In
where, in March, he had some of his humorous Dubious Battle), he published his sixth, Of Mice
verse published. He had already decided to and Men. It confirmed Steinbeck’s strong
become a writer. sympathies with the working people, but what
made it a departure for him was its style. In a
Over the next few years, until 1935, he worked letter, he called it, “a tricky little thing
at a succession of labouring jobs, and it was designed to teach me to write for the theatre”.
during that period that the foundations for Of This intention is clear from various aspects of
Mice and Men were laid. As Steinbeck wrote the novel: the amount of dialogue; the
later, “I was a bindle stiff myself for quite a restriction of locations; the way that
spell. I worked in the same country that the machinery and horses, for instance, are
story is laid in. The characters are composites described only through their sounds so that
to a certain extent.” they need not appear on stage; and the careful
shaping of the “scenes” all point to an idea of
the story presented to a theatre audience. In a observations of squatter camps near his
matter of months, Steinbeck found himself Californian home. The following year, in order
commissioned to write a stage version. As the to bring the stories up to date, he joined the
director of the Broadway production, George S migrants, living with them as they made their
Kaufman, told him, the book “drops almost journey from Oklahoma to California.
naturally into play form and no-one knows that
better than you”. His experiences formed the basis of an
illustrated pamphlet, Their Blood Is Strong, and
Of Mice and Men was recast for the stage with many of the incidents in The Grapes of Wrath
few major changes, apart from the building up can be seen to have originated from this little
of the part of Curley’s wife, suggested by known work. Their Blood Is Strong
Kaufman. It opened at the Music Box Theatre demonstrates two important things about John
in New York on 23 November 1937, less than a Steinbeck: firstly, that he was able to offer
year after it had appeared in print, and was an solutions to the problems he raised in his
immediate success. Not only did it play to full fiction; and secondly that, in writing The
houses every night, but it also won for Grapes of Wrath, he knew first-hand what he
Steinbeck the Drama Critics’ Circle Award. The was talking about.
film rights were soon acquired by Lewis
Milestone, the director of All Quiet on the As an escape both from his growing fame and
Western Front, and the screen version was from thoughts of the war in Europe, Steinbeck
released in 1939. reverted to his scientific interests and spent
two months of 1940 with Ed Ricketts,
This was a prolific and successful time for collecting marine invertebrates in the Gulf of
Steinbeck. The Red Pony, his acclaimed book of California. As a result, they collaborated on Sea
linked short stories, was published of Cortez: a Leisurely Journal of Travel and
(incomplete) in 1937. The following year saw Research, published the following year. At this
the publication of another book of tales, The time, Steinbeck was at a crossroads in his
Long Valley, and of the last story of The Red personal life, and divorced Carol in 1942. In
Pony. This was also the time of Steinbeck’s 1943, he married Gwyndolen Conger, who was
major works, and he next decided to attempt to bear him two sons.
his “big book” about the plight of America’s
itinerant workforce, in particular the migrants Despite domestic turbulence, however, the
from the dust bowl of Oklahoma. In 1939 this 1940s were a productive period. His “play-
masterpiece was published as The Grapes of novelette” The Moon Is Down—written in a
Wrath. similar style to Of Mice and Men—appeared in
1942, and Cannery Row in 1944. Meanwhile,
It was a huge sensation. Clergymen and he wrote Bombs Away for the Army Air Corps
senators wanted it banned, school teachers and spent several months in the European war
were avid that their pupils should not read it, zone as a correspondent for the New York
and the furore ensured that half a million Herald Tribune. 1945 witnessed another
copies were sold within a year. Steinbeck was (finally complete) publication of The Red Pony;
attacked both for being a communist and for 1947 produced two more novels, The
selling out to the right-wing status quo Wayward Bus and The Pearl, and 1950 another
because he didn’t advocate a revolution. “play-novelette”, Burning Bright.
Nevertheless, in 1940, the book won him the
Pulitzer Prize. In 1948 he was elected to the American
Academy of Arts and Letters. All the same,
The roots of The Grapes of Wrath lay in a series after The Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men,
of stories Steinbeck had published in the San the standard of his work had declined. It was
Francisco News in October 1936 based on as though he had delivered his strongest

6
messages and was now lost for direction. This reading in American schools. When The Grapes
may well have been partly due to a double of Wrath appeared, Charles Angoff wrote, in
tragedy Steinbeck suffered in 1948: his close the North American Review, “With his latest
friend Ed Ricketts died, and Gwyn divorced novel, Mr Steinbeck at once joins the company
him, parting him from his beloved children. of Hawthorne, Melville, Crane, and Norris, and
Soon afterwards, he was married again, to easily leaps to the forefront of all his
Elaine Scott, but—in the eyes of most critics— contemporaries.” Even Malcolm Cowley, The
his fiction never regained its earlier heights. New Republic’s reviewer who never over-
praised, conceded that the book “belongs very
In this decade, Steinbeck also began to write high in the category of the great angry books
for the screen, including an adaptation of The like Uncle Tom’s Cabin that have roused people
Red Pony. In 1955, he wrote the screenplay for to fight against intolerable wrongs”.
Viva Zapata!, which was directed by Elia Kazan.
It was an excellent script and his last really Steinbeck’s deceptively simple style and his
impressive piece of writing. genius for speaking directly to the reader has
inevitably influenced many later writers, from
Before that, in 1952, Steinbeck had made a Cormac McCarthy (Blood Meridian and All the
final attempt to write a heavyweight novel that Pretty Horses) to S E Hinton (Rumble Fish and
would be critically acclaimed. This was East of That Was Then, This Is Now). As far as
Eden, a neo-biblical epic, which had some Hollywood is concerned, one of the main
success but failed to achieve the resonance of themes of Of Mice and Men—the pain of the
his two great earlier books. In his last years, he conflict between friendship and duty—has
produced Sweet Thursday (1954), The Short inspired films such as The Wild Bunch and Billy
Reign of Pippin IV (1957) and The Winter of Our the Kid. Even the songs of Bob Dylan, largely
Discontent (1961), but these novels were indebted to Woody Guthrie, show the marks of
received with little interest from the critics. an acquaintance with Steinbeck’s prose. The
Nonetheless, in 1962, the year of his non- basic fact is that he is part of American
fiction book Travels With Charley, Steinbeck literature; like all great writers, his is a unique
received his Nobel Prize for Literature. He died voice without which modern writing would be
four years later, on 20 December 1968. the poorer.

Since then, his work has been continuously Julia Elliot © John Good
read and performed, and he is required

7
 John Steinbeck in Context

1902 John Ernst Steinbeck born in California

1917 America enters the First World War
1919 Steinbeck goes to Stanford University
1925 Steinbeck leaves university and goes to New York
1929 The ‘Great Crash’ on Wall Street, leading to the start of the Great Depression;
Steinbeck publishes his first novel Cup of Gold
1930 Steinbeck marries Carol Henning
1937 Of Mice and Men published
1939 The Grapes of Wrath published
1939 – 45 The Second World War
1940 Steinbeck’s first marriage breaks up and he almost immediately remarries;
Grapes of Wrath wins the Pulitzer Prize.
1948 Steinbeck’s friend is fatally injured after a car crash, and shortly afterwards his
second wife asks for a divorce.
1950 Steinbeck marries Elaine Scott
1962 Steinbeck awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
1968 Steinbeck dies of heart disease

8
 The Great Depression
In 1928 the new Republican president Herbert Hoover confidently stated, 'We in America today are
nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.' Within a year, all
the confidence had ended and America was plunged into the Depression.

Top: The trading floor of the New York Stock

Exchange just after the crash of 1929.

On Black Tuesday, 29 October 1929, the stock

market collapsed. In a single day, sixteen million
shares were traded and thirty billion dollars
vanished into thin air. The "Era of Get Rich Quick"
was over.

Middle: Police stand guard outside the entrance

to New York's closed World Exchange Bank,
March 20, 1931.

When firms and banks went bust, people lost their

life savings and unemployment figures rose to 13
million, nearly a third of the population. There
was no dole or support for unemployed people, so
food was in short supply and people lost their
homes. Many people lived in shacks made out of
scrap metal and boxes in shanty towns that were
nicknamed Hoovervilles, after the President.

Bottom: Unemployed men desperately compete

for jobs at the American Legion Employment
Bureau in Los Angeles during the Great
Depression.

9
Causes of the Great Depression in the South, promptly moved out again,
leaving the indigenous population to sort out
the mess.
The Depression of the 1930s was a
phenomenon which affected the whole of the
Another factor in the South’s decline was the
developed world. The event which most
rapid mechanisation of the farms. The land
dramatically triggered it was the Wall Street
had always been owned by a few, but
Crash of October 1929, itself the result of wild
previously they had rented much of it out to
speculation on the New York Stock Exchange.
tenant smallholders who would eke out a
The effects were felt not only in America, but
subsistence livelihood. By the 1930s, this
in Britain and Europe, too, where there were
scenario had changed, with most landowners
also other causes of economic depression,
buying up tractors and other machinery and
including the collapse of the Austrian credit,
evicting tenants to open up the land into vast
Anstalt.
fields which they could cultivate themselves.
Because of this heavy investment they looked
Europe, particularly, had been suffering for
for a quick return in terms of crop yield and so
some time from an industrial decline, due to a
began a period of intense one-crop farming.
shortage of capital and a drop in consumption.
The effect of this was to take vital nutrients
World War I had demanded high levels of
from the soil while returning nothing. The soil
output that were no longer necessary,
was weakened and its natural structure broken
affecting, for instance, the shipbuilding
down so that the great winds—none stronger
industry. All this—as well as the increase in
than on Black Sunday, 14 April 1935—quickly
mechanisation—led to a large decrease in
removed the topsoil, leaving the earth barren;
jobs, resulting in mass unemployment.
thus creating the Dust Bowl.
The immediate effects of the Wall Street Crash
were dramatic. On 24 October 1929, or Black
Thursday, billions of dollars were wiped off
share prices. A thousand banks went bust,
wrecking countless businesses, and at least
eleven people were known to have committed
suicide because of their losses.

From New York to California, America reeled

from a financial disaster of unprecedented
proportions. The effects were felt throughout
the nation. In the cities homelessness and food
shortages, large-scale unemployment and
rioting were the order of the day. In the
countryside, the hardship was most starkly Migration
reflected in disproportionately high infant
mortality rates. It was this combination of factors that led to a
surge of poor unemployed Southerners, or
In the United States, some of the worst-hit “Okies” as they became known, moving West
areas were the arid farming regions of the to seek security in California’s fertile Plains.
middle states, like Oklahoma, which had been Most came from Oklahoma, while the rest
hit by both the Depression and years of mainly originated from Texas, Kansas,
drought. When Wall Street crashed, one of the Arkansas, Missouri and Colorado. This huge
major casualties was the oil industry, whose internal migration became one of the greatest
heartland was on the Texas and Oklahoma the developed world saw in the 20th century—
Plains. The Boomtowners, who had moved in much of it into California. Almost a million
to make the area one of the most prosperous people left their Plains’ farms in the first half of
the decade, with 2.5 million leaving after 1935. the Okies—a hostility never previously
It is estimated that in the second half of the experienced by white people in California.
decade almost 300,000 poor people crossed Steinbeck himself noted, “there are riots in
the state line by automobile alone. Indeed, in Salinas and killings in the streets of that dear
one 15-month period, over 85,000 destitute little town where I was born”.
migrants entered the Golden State—more
than had moved there in the two years after So there were thousands of itinerant
the discovery of gold in 1849. This great labourers, like George and Lennie, who were
migration was not all towards California, but unable to find steady work. Large numbers of
with urban unemployment still high, especially these men weaved across the state trying to
in the Northeast, there were few places left to find employment where they could. Many
go. It is among these migrants that Steinbeck found seasonal work for themselves as fruit
placed the Joad family, in The Grapes of Wrath. pickers. Others took jobs as ditch diggers or
building workers. As itinerants, the workmen
were wide open to exploitation by their
employers. Besides being forced to work long
hours for low wages, they were often obliged
to sleep rough under the stars. Considered a
romantic lifestyle by those who didn't have to
live it, the harsh reality of the itinerants' lot is
captured by Steinbeck in Of Mice and Men.

Most farms would provide temporary lodgings

of one form or another, but with only three
state inspectors to 8,000 camps, standards
were not high. As the journalist Lorena Hickok
reported, “Although the growers are supposed
As they reached California, many were simply to provide decent housing and sanitary
turned back. The lucky ones were greeted by conditions for these people, they don’t. Most
the Los Angeles Police, who met them with a of the workers live in tent colonies, with no
“bum blockade” at the point of entry. After water and no sanitation. Many of them live on
allowing a certain number through, first the banks of the irrigation ditches and drink
checking they had a reasonable amount of the ditch water.” As the combined picking
money on them (“reasonable” to an LA season lasted only six months and pay was
policeman being “fantastical” to an Okie), the only around subsistence level, the strain on the
police simply closed the border. If they were relief organisations became immense.
unlucky they were met by vigilantes: local
people armed with whatever they could get
hold of and ready to protect their slice of the
The Government’s Response
Californian pie. They were not too particular
The government did try to intervene. In 1930,
about how they persuaded the migrants to
President Herbert Hoover, appalled that within
turn round and head back home.
the space of a year, unemployment had risen
by 200 per cent, allocated funds for the
Once in California, the situation for the
creation of special works programmes. He was
migrants did not necessarily improve.
painfully aware that he had exacerbated
Competition for jobs was fierce, with two-
America’s problems by claiming earlier in his
thirds of the travelling workforce out of work
presidency that there were jobs galore to be
at any one time. With the indigenous
found in the cities. The vast shanty towns, or
Californian population keen to protect their
Hoovervilles, that had risen up on the outskirts
interests, there was extreme hostility aimed at
of most American metropolises contributed in
11
no small part to the wholesale rejection of was World War II, with its demands for
Hoover and his policies at the 1932 armaments, transport and troops.
presidential election.
It is against the social and economic
background of the Depression as Steinbeck
himself experienced it, that the personal
tragedies of his characters should be seen. As
single men, George and Lennie are better off
than some, economically; they can make their
wages stretch further and can afford to save
money. Their dream of buying a smallholding
and living “off the fatta the lan’” harks back to
a sense of the American dream—the ideal of
the self-made man. In the devastation of the
1930s, it is perhaps not surprising that some
American thinkers really did advocate this
Fortunately, Hoover’s successor, Franklin back-to-the-land philosophy. After all, it is a
Delano Roosevelt, was a man of action. He natural reaction for some people to revert to
promised America a ‘New Deal’, and within the golden idylls when times are bad. In an opinion
first hundred days of office, in 1933, launched poll in 1937, 40 per cent of the population still
a thousand pieces of legislation. The New Deal believed America was “a land of opportunity”.
was a package of policies which included They still believed in the American Dream,
subsidies to farmers and the setting up of despite all that had happened in less than a
agencies. It gradually made a difference. By the decade. They had, after all, little else in which
time Steinbeck’s novel was published, the to believe.
economic tide was beginning to turn, although
few outside the West had any idea of the true Chris Kramer © John Good
extent of the hardship faced by working people
there. Ironically, what really put an end to the Photographs from the ‘Bound For Glory’
Great Depression, on both sides of the Atlantic, Exhibition: America in Color 1939 – 1943.

12
Migrant Farm Workers

Top: A farmer and his sons in a dust storm,

Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936. Photographer:
Arthur Rothstein.

A drought in the central USA crippled agriculture

during the Great Depression. It was the worst in the
climatological history of the country, made worse
by over-farming drying out the land and losing the
top soil. By 1934 it had desiccated the Great Plains,
from North Dakota to Texas, from the Mississippi
River Valley to the Rockies. Vast dust storms swept
the region and crops failed.

Poor crops meant that many farmers were unable

to repay the loans they had taken out for their land.

Middle: Migrant pea pickers camp in the rain.

California, February, 1936. Photographer: Dorothea
Lange.

As a result of the drought, workers started moving

away from the Dust Bowl to find work. By the end
of the decade there were millions of migrants on
the road.

Bottom: Migrant workers walking towards Los

Angeles, California, in 1937. Photographer:
Dorothea Lange.

13
 The Salinas Valley
Steinbeck was born in Salinas, a descriptive where you can dine surrounded by Steinbeck
name indicating the salt marshes at the mouth memorabilia.
of the Salinas River. Some fifty miles south of
San José, Salinas lies in the middle of a fertile Whilst the fishing industry is still important,
agricultural region where mainly lettuce and the incredibly fertile land and favourable
sugar beet but also fruit and vegetables of all climatic conditions make California the
kinds are grown. The house in Salinas where producer of almost half the fruit and
Steinbeck was born is now a lunch restaurant, vegetables in the USA.

The Salinas Valley today: it is dubbed by locals ‘the

world’s salad bowl’. Agriculture is still the chief
industry here: in particular lettuce, strawberries,
tomatoes, spinach, and vineyards.

Major US food companies Dole, Naturipe and Fresh

Express have farms in the Valley, where much of the
global fruit and vegetable trade emerges in neat
green fields just over the hills from the Pacific coast.

14
 SECTION II
Of Mice and Men: The Production

Turning a Novel into a Play

While John Steinbeck was working on 1937 and given a considerable boost when, in
Something That Happened (the first title for January 1938, it was chosen as a main
what became Of Mice and Men), a story which selection by the Book of the Month Club; it
he originally intended for children, he said to a was soon selling 100,000 copies a month.
friend: “Between us, I think the novel is
painfully dead. I’ve never liked it. I’m going into Critical reviews tended to be respectful and
training to write for the theatre, which seems sometimes complimentary, but Time magazine
to be waking up. I have some ideas for a new called it a “fairy tale” and negative responses
dramatic form I’m experimenting with.” were pretty much summed up in The Nation:
“All but one of the persons in Mr Steinbeck’s
He worked on the story through to May 1936, very brief novel are subhuman if the range of
when his new puppy Toby took a shine to the the word human is understood to coincide
manuscript and, as he later told his publisher, with the range thus far established by fiction.”
“made confetti” of about half of it. He But The New York Times called it “completely
estimated that it would be two months’ work disarming” and another critic nominated it as
to redo it. During that time he and his wife “the finest bit of prose fiction of this decade”.
Carol moved to a new house 50 miles north of
Monterey, California where Steinbeck was very Steinbeck had always considered Of Mice and
happy and worked well in his new study. Men a “playable novel”, although the producer
who had optioned his previous work, In
It was not plain sailing however and Steinbeck Dubious Battle, was not at all interested in a
spoke of problems to be resolved and stage version. However, it was not long before
searching to “find the beauty to put into it”. Broadway playwright and director George S
The story itself had its origins in Steinbeck’s Kaufmann asked Steinbeck to create a working
own experience of hoboes or ‘bindlestiffs’ as play from his story. He had suggestions too,
they were called, and migrant workers. In his worth quoting in full, as Steinbeck took his
earlier life he had been in daily contact with advice: “It is only the second act that seems to
such people and had plenty of opportunity to me to need fresh invention. You have the two
find out how they thought, felt and behaved. natural scenes for it - bunkhouse and the
George and Lennie represented two such ‘lost negro’s room, but I think the girl should come
souls’, but Steinbeck worried that his telling of into both these scenes, and that the fight
their story might be too simple. between Lennie and Curley, which will climax
Act 2, must be over the girl. I think the girl
Steinbeck finished the book, a novella rather should have a scene with Lennie before the
than a novel, in the second week of August scene in which he kills her. The girl, I think,
1936 and sent it off to his publisher. Their should be drawn more fully: she is the
reaction was mixed and, while Steinbeck could motivating force of the whole thing and should
not detect any great enthusiasm, Of Mice and loom larger.”
Men was eventually published in the winter of

15
Steinbeck trusted Kaufmann and, after handing production, with its superb timing and
him the script, did not wish to be involved in pregnant silences (helped by a fine economy of
rehearsals. Kaufmann was surprised and a little dialogue), lifts the whole significance of the
hurt, as he was by Steinbeck’s refusal to attend drama far beyond the narrow confines of its
the opening night or to see the New York setting.”
production at all. Steinbeck was never
comfortable with his own celebrity, but sent Of Mice and Men was also filmed for the first
Kaufmann a friendly congratulatory letter, time in 1939, directed by Lewis Milestone. It
saying: “…you have done a great job. I knew was ahead of its time in having the action start
you would. It seems that for two hours you before the credits and, with music by Aaron
made your play far more real than its audience Copland and Lon Chaney as Lennie, and
and only the play existed.” despite later film versions and a 1981
television film, this is still considered the
Of Mice and Men opened at the Music Box definitive film version of the piece.
Theatre on Broadway on 23 November 1937.
The New York Times said: “Of Mice and Men is Elaine Peake © John Good
the quintessence of commercial theatre and it
is also a masterpiece.” It ran for 207
performances.
TASK
When the play was produced at London’s Gate Discuss with a partner what you think the
Theatre in April 1939, John Mills played George main differences are between a novel and a
and what might have been a potentially play?
difficult transition of a wholly American world
In your answer think in particular about how
to the British stage seems to have been a great
the story is portrayed to the audience, and
success. In a review for Life and Letters Today
in July 1939, Anthony Merryn wrote: “The characters, lighting and set.

16
The Characters
Lennie (Daniel Hoffman-Gill)
• A “simple” character, who relies on George to help him live and
survive.
• The best way to describe him is as a tame dog, with George as his
master. Steinbeck portrays him as animal, describing his movements
as a “…bear who drags his paws”. Like a dog, he is also very loyal, he
does what he is told and can “bite when needed”.
• He has the mind and mannerisms of an inquisitive animal.
• The only way he can work is by being instructed to do tasks – not from
his own initiative.
• He is a caring individual, demonstrated by the way he is with animals.
• He relates to animals most because they do not have a voice or
opinions. When he is with them he can feel secure and be himself, and relate to his “own kind”.
• One of his more obvious characteristics is his height and strength.
• Much like an animal, he has no moral system. He doesn’t understand the implications of his
actions, or the consequences.
• Lenny does not really change through the novel: he is always essentially the same.

George (John Elkington)

• He takes on the role of parent with Lenny, but despite needing Lenny’s
company, he is haunted by own loneliness.
• He wants to have simpler life, but this would only be possible by leaving
Lenny. “If I was alone I could live so easy.”
• George and Lenny “… kinda look after each other”. This gives George a
sense of security – people don’t want to mess with him when Lenny is
around.
• Through the play he grows as an individual. He re-evaluates his
relationship with Lenny and the way he has used him (“He made me
look god damn smart”). This leads to the point where he removes
Lennie from his life completely, thus killing the paternal part of him.
This makes him less sensitive and “more of a man”.

Slim (Mark Jardine )

• The intellectually superior character.
• He is very thoughtful. There are two sides to him:
rough and ready; skilful and tender.
• He is like a priest to the other characters, holding
an impartial view of situations and offering advice
to them all. We see in the play when he and
George discuss what George is going through.
• He considers what would be the best for the
majority, not just for himself, like the choice to
kill Candy’s dog.
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Candy (Robin Bowerman)
• The oldest member on the farm.
• Knows about anything and everything that goes on.
• The most important person as regards the “dream”, because he has the
money.
• A metaphor for the idea that people should not be judged from the
outside (his disability) but from their internal qualities.

Curley (David Beckford)

• The main antagonist in the play.
• The boss’s son, which gives him gravity and status.
• He is a metaphor for the injustice that the migrant workers suffered.
• His character is a metaphor for how women are treated (the glove on
his hand): “…ol’ glove full o Vaseline…says he keeps it for his wife”.

Crooks (Jim Findley)

• Crooks is a black stable hand.
• His character is a metaphor for how people who are ‘different’ fit in within
the society of the West.
• His pessimism about the ‘dream’ and opinion that the ranch hands will
never change provide a reality-check.

Curley’s wife (Bridie Higson)

• The young, attractive wife of the Boss’s son, Curley
• She makes Curley jealous by flirting with the ranch hands – she is seen as
‘jail bait’ by them
• She creates tension in the bunk house
• She is killed by Lennie, and is therefore the reason George has to shoot him

Other Characters

Whit (Karl Haynes) Carlson (Robin Kingsland)

18
Interview with the director, Giles Croft
What initially attracted you to Of Mice and Men as
a play?
I saw the old 1930s film when I was young, and I
remember it being very powerful. Several years later
I read the novella, which I enjoyed; so, when I had
the chance to direct the play, I took it. I’ve liked it for
a long time, but I’ve never had the chance to direct it
before.

When you were directing, did you want the

protagonists George and Lennie to be portrayed
differently to how they had been in the film or did
you want them to be shown in a similar way?
The actors will have to find their own way of
representing the characters, of course, but of the
two films I found Lewis Milestone’s 1930s version
much easier to watch and a much more honest
portrayal of what I think the story is about. I don’t find the later version very convincing, it seems to
me that it’s a bit too Hollywood. I feel John Malkovich tries too hard in his performance to make
Lennie someone with a mental illness instead of someone who is just simple minded. I won’t be
encouraging the actors to watch the films, but they probably will.

Do you think that your version has contemporary relevance? If so, how did you ensure that it
remained relevant to today’s audience?
I think that because the story is based on relationships, everyone can relate to it. You don’t need to
bring that up to date, it will always remain relevant – you just have to tell the story truthfully. The
other thing is that Steinbeck wrote the story in a straightforward unembellished form, so it doesn’t
need any stylistic tricks.

How did you work alongside set designer Michael Vale ?

I’ve worked with Michael Vale before and I know his approach to plays. He and I had a meeting early
on, where we discussed potential ideas for the play and I spoke about some of the things I felt were
important. When he put forward his initial idea for

TASK the design, I felt it was right – we hardly made any
changes. The set will appear non-naturalistic, but I
Imagine you have the opportunity to think it conveys the isolation of not just the two
interview the director of Of Mice and central characters but all the characters in the play.
Men. Make a list of five questions that Funnily enough, when I was auditioning actors for the
you would ask him, including about any play, one of them said that the characters’ lives are
elements of the production that puzzled very similar to an actor’s. You have to make
you. Swap question lists with a partner relationships very quickly and you’re always living in
and see if you can imagine what the anticipation of the next job. And so with that, we
director’s answer to each of your decided that the idea of isolation is very important to
partner’s questions might be. the play.
19
Interview with the set designer,
Michael Vale
What initially attracted you to Of Mice and
Men?
It's important to remember that, like all
designers, I was approached to design the play
by the director. At that point you have to
decide whether if it is something that actually
attracts you. In that respect my first contact
with Of Mice And Men was through seeing the
film when I was a teenager and being very
moved by the way in which it expressed the
real trap that Lennie and George were caught
in as poor, itinerant workers. This encouraged
me to read the book and the play, both of
which are written with a beautiful economy.

The set appears to be simple but very authentic and effective.

QUESTION How did you come up with this idea?
If you were designing for a Designers don't so much as 'come up with ideas' but rather
theatre production of Of Mice they try to absorb the content and 'feel' of the play, through
and Men what choices would the writing, in order to produce a physical world for the story
you make? credibly to take place in. These physical worlds can be as many
and as varied as there are actual designers and plays and so, in
form, they vary from the naturalistic to the abstract and expressionistic – but each time they are an
attempt to serve the content of the play in collaboration with the director, cast and all of the other
skills involved in mounting a production. In this instance, for myself, I was interested in how this
simple story of two men sits in a larger landscape.

Did you work with director Giles Croft on the initial idea or did you pitch your thoughts to him?
As usual, the designer begins a conversation with the director to find out what he or she thinks the
play is about and then they move onto quite broad strokes about what it could actually look like.
From there the designer develops these thoughts in more detail and returns with them to the
director. Very early on both Giles and myself felt that the story had to be played in a big space. I
developed this into a simple wide, deep stage with a seamless transition between floor and back
wall.

QUESTION What is the thing you enjoy most about your job?
What do you think are Reading the play for the first time and letting it stimulate and excite
the hardest jobs are for a me into wondering what it could possibly look like.
set designer?

20
Interview with actors
Bridie Higson (Curley’s wife)
and Jim Findley (Crooks)
What drew you to your character when you first
read the play?
Bridie: I studied the book for GCSE. I wasn’t
particularly drawn to Curley's wife in the novel,
but when I got the play script for the audition, I
liked her instantly – she comes across very
differently. I liked her because she's
misunderstood, and I saw a lot of similarities
between her as a character and me as a person. I
felt quite protective of her; that she needed a fair
chance to get her voice out. Hopefully that's
what's happening in the rehearsal room.

Jim: My character is black and the novella

mentions how badly treated he is. One of the
things that drew me in is his independent spirit:
he tries to stand up for himself. Hopefully, the
audience – especially the younger members – will Bridie Higson
understand that people were segregated in America
at that time. Crooks even had to sleep in a separate place.

What challenges does the role pose for you?

Jim: I'm playing a man with an injured back – Crooks has been kicked by a horse. Luckily I knew well
in advance that I would be playing this character, so I've been trying different ways of moving and
researching ways people with this kind of injury walk. I’ve now developed something I feel is right.

Bridie: I suppose for me, going back to the answer to the previous question, the challenge with my
character is making her seem more sympathetic, as opposed to what people know of her from the
book. She is completely different in the play. There is much more of her back story, you understand
a lot more about her situation and her life, and I have to get that across. She was so unsympathetic
in the book, not a layered character at all; major changes were made in the play and you now see
different aspects of her character.

Jim: Steinbeck has changed things in the play about my character, too, things that I think make him
stronger – which I won't reveal. Steinbeck is a truly great writer and the fact that he can take those
months or years in between and then go back and say “This is what the people feel about the work
and I want to change it” is really good.

Bridie: I speak for Jim as well: the fact that I'm playing a woman and he's playing a black man in
those times, and the play gives us both a voice and a story to tell, is really important.

21
 Jim: We are outcasts, the two of us. It's a
white man's world. Neither of us have a
place in it.

What hooks, clues or ways of thinking have

helped you interpret your character? What
is the portrayal of your character beginning
to look like?
Jim: I look at the text for weeks or months
before, but my interpretation is also shaped
by the other actors and how they approach
it. You can’t answer all the questions before
you begin work on it in rehearsal; you build
it together. I come from a village and lived
on a farm as a kid, and Crooks works on the
land as my grandfather did, so I guess I've
got that in my mind. And I lived in the West
Indies, in a hot area, so I picture that – I
Jim Findley picture the earth.

Bridie: That's how I bridge a character as well, I begin by identifying aspects of her personality with
aspects of mine. I like to have a relationship where we are joined. Then it’s a case of looking at what
has been said about the character in the text, and what she has said about herself. Also, how that
comes across: a line can have a completely different meaning, depending on how you say it.
Jim: Another thought is that there are a lot of comments made about Bridie's character before she
actually comes on stage, so there’s a certain expectation there. There are also comments made
about my character before you see him about what he excels at, and that also sets up expectations –
and then when you see how he looks physically there’s a contrast, because he’s disabled by his
injury. So that’s interesting. But in the end, you can’t play what is said about you – you can only play
what's there in your lines.

What discoveries were made about your character through rehearsals that perhaps weren't
explicit in the script?
Jim: One instance is about Crooks reading and having books. In the script it says “books ain't no
good”, but when I started working the piece, and looking at Lennie and Slim, I realised Crooks is
probably the most educated person in this place – yet he's treated as the lowest. I hadn't even
thought about that when I was reading the script, it just occurred to me in rehearsal a couple of days
ago.

Bridie: I think for me, it was when we stood the script up and started working without the text. It’s
obvious from the script that Curley’s wife has a hard time living there, but the level of hostility
towards her, and the atmosphere that she creates when she walks in a room, is something that you
can't get from the text. For instance, there’s a moment when she is trying to build a relationship
with the other characters, trying to have a conversation with them, but they’re not looking at her
and not giving anything back. As an actor you don't really feel it properly until you've got five pairs of
eyes not looking at you – and when they do look at you, it’s as if you were something they'd scraped
off the bottom of their shoe. Then you really feel it, you really understand how awful it would have
been for her.

22
Interview with actor
Daniel Hoffman-Gill (Lennie)
What drew you to your character when you first
read the play?
I suppose the childlike nature of the part, Lennie's
sweetness.

What challenges does the role pose for you?

Daniel: Massive challenges. I've been acting for
fifteen years and it's probably the hardest part
I've ever had to play, because he's disabled and
I'm not. It's fraught with danger and that's the
hardest thing. It's unlocking his disability, it's
unlocking how that affects the way he thinks, and
moves, and sees and hears and touches things.

What hooks, clues or ways of thinking have

helped you interpret your character? What is
your portrayal of the character so far?
I've just tried to understand the part. I tend not to
think about things too much, I just do it and see Daniel Hoffman-Gill
whether it fits. I’ve worked with some actors with Down’s syndrome and I’ve got some of their
characteristics at the back of my mind, but I'm not at all doing an impression of them.

What discoveries were made about your character through rehearsals that perhaps weren't
explicit in the script?
The level of fun and play in Lennie. That's what's come out in rehearsals. We also discovered a little
thing about him being quite vain as well – he's always combing his beard.

You are playing a very iconic character who will mean a great deal to many audience members.
Will you be influenced by any previous performances of your character, either on stage or film?
No. I've never seen anyone do Lennie, and I've never seen any of the films. It's completely based on
the text and my imagination: those two things meet, and that's it.

QUESTION
Do you think there is a difference in the
way society views people with a
learning disability now compared to
the 1930s, when the play was written?
If so, what things have changed? Is
there anything that hasn’t?

23
Rehearsal Photos

24
Set Model Photos

The Barn

The Bunkhouse

Crookes’s Room

25

The Riverbank

TASK
Compare Michael Vale’s design with these
previous stage productions and your own
ideas.

The design of a piece should reflect the

themes that the director wants to highlight
within his/her interpretation. Consider
first what themes you want to make
prominent and then consider your design
for the key scenes on the previous page:
The Riverbank, The Bunkhouse, The Barn
and Crooks’s room.

26
 SECTION III
Exercises & Assignments

Themes It’s a play about:

 The American Dream  Migrant workers

 Social Status  A banking crisis
 Migrant Workers  Discrimination
 The Great Depression  The American Dream and a personal dream
 Racism  The past, the present, the future
 Friendship  It’s performed by a group of people who make their
 Dreams living from travelling from place to place, living a
 Loneliness transient lifestyle – migrant workers themselves

TASK
Pick a theme that you think
represents each of these quotes:

Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t
belong no place...With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a
damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place
else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us.

“Well, we ain’t got any," George exploded. "Whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want. God
a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble. No mess at
all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get
whatever I want.

There is a path through the willows and among the sycamores, a path beaten hard by boys coming
down from the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and beaten hard by tramps who come wearily
down from the highway in the evening to jungle-up near water.

Lennie said gently, "George… I ain’t got mine. I musta lost it." He looked down at the ground in
despair. "You never had none, you crazy bastard. I got both of ‘em here. Think I’d let you carry your
own work card?" Lennie grinned with relief.

27

TASK
Compare the play, novella
and film

Watch one or both of the feature film versions of Of Mice and Men (1939, directed by Lewis
Milestone, and 1992, directed by Gary Sinise, who plays the part of George). Look at the way the
directors present the narrative, and compare this to the presentation in the novella.

28

TASK Compare the opening of the play with the opening of the film and
novella, focusing on how the directors achieve their effects. In what
Choose one of the ways does the play add to your understanding of the book?
following assignments:
The press-kit for the film claims that:

'The character of Curley's Wife was written more sympathetically in the screenplay than in the book.
The film version is intended to allow audiences to discover some insights into her motivation.’

Write a dialogue between two students discussing the differences in the way Curley's wife is
represented in the book, the play and the film.

For this activity you will need to work in pairs and then groups of six.

TASK
Persuade a producer to Half the pairs write an outline of Of Mice and Men as film directors
finance the film or play who want to persuade a producer to put up the money for a film
version. Your outline should emphasise the positive qualities of the
story and its potential as a film. You may want to make some casting suggestions.

The other pairs write the outline of a conversation when a freelance director approaches the Artistic
Director of a theatre in the hope s/he will commission them to direct the play.

Hold a meeting to discuss the proposal to make the play and film with group members taking on
different roles: -

Film Version
The director; members of the director's team; the producer; members of the producer's team,
with someone chairing the meeting. Justify whatever decision your group reaches.

Play version
The director, Artistic Director, Chief Executive, Arts Council funding panel member

Report back your decision to the class, giving your reasons for it.

‘The fall out of the current crisis has yet to be fully appreciated, yet a certainty is that the impact
upon our emotional and psychological temperaments will be great.’

TASK Of Mice and Men has been staged and filmed several times before.
You may have seen one or more of these versions. In the light of the
Think about why there ideas you have considered during the previous activities, why do you
should be another think anyone would make a new play or film version in the 2000s?
version? Which of the issues and themes are current today?

29

TASK
Questions to consider
with reference to the
play and today’s society

What it is like to be a man?

‘“What does being a man mean?” This is a good question,
and yet one not easily answered. You can speak of taking
responsibility, stepping up, being brave, or just showing
up. There are endless descriptions, and while most will
have elements of truth to them, they will also lack
something. They may truly describe a man, but they will
never describe all men.’

March 7 2012. Article in The Good Life: ‘Is being a man in

2012 different from being a man in 1982?’

What it is like to be an outsider?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-LGlou9aEA
Sidney Poitier talks to Oprah on being the only black actor in Hollywood

www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7389012n
CBS news. Taylor Swift talks about being an outsider.

How do gangs work?

“There is no purpose in joining a gang. It's just a lot of lonely people looking for a place to belong
and feel wanted”

Discuss with reference to last year’s riots and compare with the gang mentality of the ranch workers
in Of Mice and Men.

TASK • Using the evidence in the novella, describe the lifestyle and
More questions possessions of the ranch-hands. Compare what they lack to what you
to consider have.

• Discuss ways in which John Steinbeck argues that ‘the best-laid plans of Mice and Men’ often go
wrong.

• The novella dates from 1937. Does it still have anything to say to us? Who are the ‘loneliest guys
in the world’ today? Are we more or less able to realise our dreams than the characters in this
story?

30
 SECTION IV
Contacts

Nottingham Playhouse
Wellington Circus
Nottingham
NG1 5AF

Box Office
0115 941 9419

Administration

0115 947 4361

Participation Team
Sarah Stephenson, Education Officer
0115 873 6231
[email protected]

Allie Spencer, Education Officer (Tues-Thurs)

0115 873 6241
[email protected]

Kitty Parker, Participation Administrator

0115 873 6203
[email protected]

Nottingham Playhouse Roundabout

Kitty Parker, Participation Administrator
0115 873 6203
[email protected]

www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
31