The Portable Steinbeck

The John Steinbeck classic “Of Mice and Men” opens tonight at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, on the eve of what would have been the author’s 97th birthday.

Had he lived, Steinbeck would have witnessed a respect for this work that continues to build more than 60 years after its first publication as a novella.

“Of Mice and Men”--the second in his trilogy of Depression-era novels that began with “In Dubious Battle” (1936) and ended with “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940)--almost immediately was adapted to the stage.

The seemingly simple story centers on George and Lennie, two migrant farmhands adrift in California whose plans for contentment go tragically awry. But it struck a chord with both critics and audiences. New York drama critics voted it best play of the 1937 season.

Then followed a stage musical, an opera, two movies and a television production. Now even a computer CD-ROM production is available (“Of Mice and Men,” Byron Preiss Multimedia). A documentary on Steinbeck is scheduled for March 11 on the Arts & Entertainment cable channel and will be previewed at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas on Saturday.

“You read his journals during the writing of these novels, and there’s so much self-doubt and insecurity,” said Morgan Neville, producer, director and writer of the documentary “John Steinbeck: An American Writer.”

“It’s just amazing,” he said, considering that these novels are probably the reason he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1962.

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The play has been professionally staged at least two dozen times in the past decade, and amateur productions number in the hundreds. The opera by Carlisle Floyd, introduced in 1970, has become so popular that it is being staged by five opera companies this year. It just finished a run by the San Diego Opera.

“Of Mice and Men” has achieved the paradoxical status of being taught in most high schools while still being one of the most popular targets for book banning.

According to the American Library Assn., “Of Mice and Men” is always among the most often challenged books, mostly when it comes to school libraries and classrooms. Last year it was second in challenges only to “The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier, a 1974 book for teens that some considered too sexually explicit.

“Of Mice and Men” is usually challenged for its language, which was considered shocking in the 1930s but is tame by modern standards, said English professor Susan Shillinglaw, director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State. Like “Huckleberry Finn,” it is sometimes challenged as racist because its characters use the most common epithet for blacks.

“When people don’t like the political agenda, they attack the language, which does not seem to be literary,” said Shillinglaw.

But count South Coast Rep co-founder David Emmes among the play’s admirers. “It has an almost biblical strength,” he said, explaining why he decided to direct the current production.

“These characters in a sense have been cast out of paradise into the Depression. They still dream about Eden--the American dream, a little piece of land, a little place of their own. This is so important to the American character. It somehow just spoke so strongly and powerfully to me.”

Emmes was so impressed, he said, that he has tried to minimize anything that might distract the audience from the play’s “simple eloquence.”

The set is “slightly abstracted,” and the costumes are restricted to “a very tight palette” of colors. Emmes said he wanted “a distillation of the key elements of the novel,” so he “cut away everything that doesn’t serve that purpose.”

Part of his purpose is bringing “Of Mice and Men” to life for high school and college students--and perhaps for those who shirked when it was assigned way back in senior English.

As part of South Coast Rep’s American Classics Series, its run is being extended through April 4. During four days, March 23-26, the usual ticket prices of $18 to $45 will be reduced to $10 for student groups.

Some tickets for Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. performance will be sold that day only for whatever the buyer wants to pay, although a $5-per-ticket minimum is being suggested.

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Anyone who sees the play will virtually have read the book. In “Of Mice and Men,” Steinbeck deliberately created a new literary form he called the “play novelette,” a novella intended to be hardly more than a play script with stage directions cast as narration.

Steinbeck, who preferred being called a writer rather than a novelist, had the stage in mind when he set out to write “Of Mice and Men.” Virtually all exposition and character development are accomplished through dialogue. The result was a simple, tightly woven work that in today’s paperback edition is only 107 pages long.

“One of Steinbeck’s biographers thinks ‘Of Mice and Men’ is his best work,” said Shillinglaw. “I certainly think it’s nearly flawless in its very compactness. It couldn’t be any longer.”

Because the book was virtually a script, both play and movie versions vary little in dialogue or plot. The opera, while using an entirely different libretto, holds closely to plot and characterization.

Emmes said that while “Of Mice and Men” gives insight into the Depression era, it is hardly a period piece. “The story is so enduring and compelling today, strong and simple. It gives us insights into the American character.”

In 1937, Steinbeck explained why Lennie, the most memorable character, seemed too real:

“Lennie was a real person. He’s in an insane asylum in California right now. I worked alongside him for many weeks.

“He didn’t kill a girl. He killed a ranch foreman. Got sore because the boss had fired his pal, and stuck a pitchfork right through his stomach. I hate to tell you how many times. I saw him do it. we couldn’t stop him until it was too late.”

* “Of Mice and Men” opens tonight at South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. Continues at 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2:30 & 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2:30 & 7:30 p.m. Sundays. $18-$45. Ends April 4. (714) 708-5555.

* A NEW ROLE

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