Huge cast, so painful to watch, beautifully done – John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company through April 29 is must see theatre.? Just an incredible piece of work.
I loved, as always, the way CSC uses the stage, sets everything up.? Creative, smart and always in furtherance of the story.? This is a great company in so many ways – but the technical underpinnings are always terrific.
They added their own folk/blue grass band, from the company itself, to move the tale forward.? And everything adds to the heartbreak.? This is such a hard story – to read, to listen to, to watch.? It was so true for the 1930s – and it is so true in 2012, without the actual dust, but now with global warming.? Each of those vicious events – God-made, human-made, law-enforcement-made – is fictitious in one sense, but totally real and grabbed from the headlines then and now in another.
How can we do these things to one another for money?? Are we crazy? Do businesses really just care about how much money they make, not about their business is in the world? ? How can folk sworn to protect actually protect only the status quo?? But it happens every day, and not just in Burma / Myanmar.
There are acts of kindness and beauty in Steinbeck’s world, and we know in the world around us most businesses are more human and more ethical.? This reminder that things can be otherwise is shocking and painful -? while exceedingly well done – and definitely worth spending time with.