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As Act Out Theatre has been getting ready for its latest production, 16-year-old Nate Scullion from Bear Creek Township has been using spray paint, motor oil, bleach and splashes of tea and coffee to give the costumes a distressed look.
They have to look gritty and worn, as if they’ve seen better days, just like the characters who will wear them in the Dunmore-based troupe’s presentation of “Of Mice and Men,” which is set for Jan. 10-12.
“This is a little darker than what we normally do,” said director Dan Pittman, of Plymouth. “We typically stick to more comedic shows. But we do one or two adult shows a year, and this has an overlying theme of the American Dream that speaks to the current environment in the world. That’s why I wanted to do it.”
The play, based on John Steinbeck’s classic novella, is set during the Depression, when characters George and Lennie, played by Tony Thomas of Wilkes-Barre and Justin Topa from Scranton, are traveling from ranch to ranch, working and trying to set aside money for a place of their own.
They dream of a place where Lennie, who has a fondness for soft things, could tend the rabbits. They’d raise other animals, too, and crops. There would be no one to tell them what to do. They’d live “off the fat of the land.”
At least, that’s the plan. Oh, if only it would work. But Steinbeck’s title hearkens back to a Scottish poem that observes how “the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley.” So, even if you haven’t brushed up on Scottish verbs and adverbs recently, you can sense the ominous clouds gathering over the ranch, which happens to be a lonely kind of place.
“Loneliness can be the biggest health problem,” Pittman said. “It can make us seek attention from people we shouldn’t be seeking out, or allow ourselves to be stuck in our heads.”
As George remarks to Lennie while they’re approaching the place, “Guys like us that work on ranches is the loneliest guys in the world. They ain’t got no families. They don’t belong no place.”
George and Lennie aren’t the only lonely folks in the play.
The character Crooks, as the only person of color working on the ranch, is isolated. The ranch owner’s daughter-in-law, as the only female on the ranch, feels alone, too. The oldest ranch worker, Candy, is missing a hand and feels useless.
But perhaps strong, muscular Lennie is the most isolated — by his simple naivete and inability to understand the ways of the world.
“Lennie has a child-like wonder about him,” Pittman said. “It’s not that he’s a dangerous person but he doesn’t understand what he’s doing.”
He’s the kind of person that might kill a mouse or a puppy by handling it too much.
Add to the mix the lone female — she’s known as Curley’s Wife in the script — and things grew more ominous.
“If you look at her from the outside in, she’s a tart and a floozy and trying to sleep around on her husband,” Pittman said. “From her perspective she’s just alone and wants contact with people. Curley is always gone and there are only men on the ranch so there’s nothing she can do.”
“The story is so powerful,” said Scullion, the costumer, who’s been watching rehearsals.
A fight scene between Lennie and Curley is a poignant part of the show, Pittman said, crediting cast members Elizabeth Guarnieri Powers and Jahmeel Powers, a married couple who met while earning master of fine arts degrees at Regent University, for their extra role as fight coordinators.
“The fight is really good. They put a lot of effort into it,” Pittman said. “It’s basically a choreographed dance.”
And, audiences will have to brace themselves for a not-so-happy ending.
“There are going to be people who are relieved by it and some who are upset by it,” he predicted. “But the cast handles it beautifully. They do an amazing job.”
