Theatre director Hema Singh’s production is a pragmatic tale of love, friendship and dreams. She spoke to Shrabasti Mallik
When John Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men in 1937, he might not have realised how loneliness and dreams of a better future would become so relevant in the 21st century. “Even when we are surrounded by people, we are all lonely,” said theatre director Hema Singh, who adapted the novel into over an hour long production of the same name.
This is the third time that the Rang Vinayak Rangmandal Theatre from Bareilly has put up the play and Singh mentioned that the Bharat Rang Mahotsav stage was the biggest platform that they have got so far.
like the novel, the play was set during America’s Great Depression, which lasted from the stock market crash of October 1929 until 12 years later when World War II began. One result of the depression was lack of steady jobs, which resulted in an increase in the number of migrating workers.
Most of these workers were men who travelled from town to town seeking short-term employment. Of Mice and Men reflects human response to a gamut of dreams, loneliness, cruelty, powerlessness, injustices and uncertainty of future. It is also a story rooted in the social vices of untouchability, cruelty and discrimination. “Steinbeck recorded a profound human truth that oppression does not come only from the hands of the strong or the powerful.
The novel suggests that the most visible kind of strength — that is used to oppress others — is itself born of weakness,” Singh pointed out. Racism is clearly etched out by the way the labourers avoid and put Crooks, a nigger, aside and does not involve him in their activities. “The production shows what he goes through and what he feels. He tries to keep himself busy with books but even that has a limit. It is natural human tendency to crave human company,” said the director.
Among other characters, there are George and lennie and their farm, which doesn’t exist in reality, but in their minds. “It was a latent dream of every labourer to own a piece of land — a place where they will have self respect and independence. It becomes a symbol of their relationship and the re-telling of the dream becomes a ritual. In opposition to this symbol is the bunkhouse which represents the cruel world of reality, where we see discrimination, cruelty, insensitivity and suspicion,” she shared.
It was difficult for Singh to get around the story because of the extensive use of slang in the original text. But her choice of actors from rough backgrounds made the work a bit easier for her. “Steinbeck had written the novel like a play. So we started improvising on the novel and on certain situations.
For some of them it was easy to project the ruggedness of characters because they are not seasoned actors. They could easily transform themselves,” she said and pointed out that putting together a play with fresh actors has its own disadvantages. She added, “I used original dialogues from the novel but edited a lot because of time constraints and the actors’ inability to comprehend those complexities in the narration. Their mental level was different so I gave them more hints, more detailing so that they could get into the skin of the character much better.” The result, she felt, was realistic.
Of its many shades, the play also dealt with life, love and death. One of the characters becomes life-taker simply to ease the death of the other. “He kills his close friend because he wanted to give him a ‘good death’ which could have been extremely brutal otherwise. He promises him that they will meet in a place where they can buy a piece of land for themselves,” she rounded up.