Of Mice and Men – Octagon Theatre
At one point over 90% of teenagers taking GCSE English Literature in UK schools studied ‘Of Mice and Men’ and many of the greying press night audience I spoke to had affection for the novel from their distant school days. However, Steinbeck’s moral fable of friendship and companionship has fallen out of favour in academia in recent years due to the overtly racist language, casual misogyny and portrayal of disability, so it was an interesting exercise to see how this stage production would translate to a more critical 21st-century environment.
Increasingly in post-Covid regional theatre, we are seeing a movement towards co-productions as a way of mitigating risk and sharing costs, this production combines the resources of Octagon Bolton, Hull Truck, Theatre by the Lake and Derby Theatre ...