★★★

Reviewer - Eliott

*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review.

Age Guidance: 13+. This play contains sensitive content including offensive language and violence. Further information can be found here.

There's a lack of urgency and energy in Birmingham Rep's production of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, a story that centres on migrant workers George (Tom McCall) and Lennie (William Young) who find themselves in deep California, during the great depression of the 1930s. Set Designer Ciarán Bagnall replicates this with great fashion of a sparse outlook in the opening, that soon doubles up to a shack of bunk beds in a rather clunky scene change, one of many to feature throughout the evening. Bagnall's lighting is even more uneasy, with the majority of action lit from the side of stage, hiding it's performers in shadow and darkness in poignant moments.

Unsettling certainty constantly keeps us as an audience often leaning forward to hear the words over the vastness of The Rep's main auditorium, and the dialogue coming from those facing away from us doesn't help with this. Associate Director of Birmingham Rep, Iqbal Khan, takes on the director with some odd choices; scenes of great length can have all performers sit down throughout, not really giving us a centre point to focus our attention, and when moments of fluffed lines and mumbling from ensemble characters take place, it's uneasiness can be felt around the audiences, with deafening silence.

To locate the positives from this production, it's the performances from its leads, McCall and Young, that give us solace. Their chemistry isn't as such cemented, but the challenge of their on stage friendship is tenseful and keeps you engaged amongst the issues surrounding them, and the authentic casting of William Young as Lennie, a reprise of his role to rave reviews in 2017, is welcomed, unlike star casting that has taken place with productions in the past. Maddy Hill as Curly's Wife, the only character in the show to have no named role, signifying a lack of independence that women had back in 1930s America, breaks up some moments of angst with great presence.

The heartbreaks scattered throughout the show, and symmetry to those moments too, are moments that hold up well to Khan's credit. Peppered throughout Steinbeck's script, these are the moments that feel most focused on, with the myriad of dialogue elsewhere left rather empty in our minds and unphased, which is a real shame when performed on a well dynamiced set that should allow the action to flow, but musical moments, often found in the scene changes, fall in the realm of miming along to pre-recorded tracks, with the ensemble found far upstage and hidden amongst the backdrop.

Of Mice and Men on this outing leaves you lacking the empathy and urgency of the action, to a degree that it'll often feel like it's skimmed across the main plot developments in allowing first time audiences to dissect the text and relationships that Steinbeck writes with such nuance.