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One Big Soul
| Article
# : |
17011 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1990 |
1,065 Words |
| Author
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Lawrence O''Toole
Lawrence O'Toole writes for Entertainment Weekly and other
national publications. |
Jim Casy, the preacher who lost his livelihood with the onset of the Depression, tells Tom Joad, recently released from prison for killing a man in self-defense, that he feels the world is "one big soul everybody's part of." John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, the story of one Okie family's plight during the Depression, and their pathetic pilgrimage in a broken-down old Hudson to what they desperately hope is the good life in California, is by now recognized as an American myth - the myth of the grit of "the people" triumphant.
Certainly the 1940 John Ford film starring Henry Fonda as Tom and Jane Darwell as Ma has helped propagate that myth. Doubtless, Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater's stage adaptation of the book will do so even further, for it is an emotionally gripping evening that superbly utilizes the resources of the stage. Before it reached its current home on Broadway, the production adapted and directed by Frank Galati, had been seen in Chicago, at the La Jolla Playhouse in California, and in London's West End. The theatrical effort culminated at this year's Tony Awards, with best-play and best-director recognition.
Nearly three hours long and gobbling up a $1.5-million budget, the production is physically impressive; but at its heart the play is nothing more than what happens when deep and complicated feelings meet and become tangled on an almost bare stage. The Grapes of Wrath is at its most thrilling when the imagery ceases and the feelings take over.
Those feelings in Steinbeck are strong, for the novel, film, and play are concerned primarily with the concept of home and what it means to people. The Joads, who never had
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