The Grapes of Wrath

Playing in repertoire with Oklahoma at the Chichester Festival Theatre until August 28.

In The Grapes of Wrath, the hot dry wind is akin to the ‘invisible reaper’ stripping the last buds from the ‘American tree of plenty’ and hurling them into the dust.

It cannot be described as theatre for those seeking ‘light’ entertainment, which some may feel is the role of Oklahoma at CFT. They would be wrong to do so. However, if hope is not the final casualty in Oklahoma, here it is doused repeatedly.

Based on the 1939 Nobel Prize winning novel by John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath provides a harsh commentary on the twin devils of drought and economics. Directed by Jonathan Church, this adaptation is just as relevant now as it was in the 30s or the 70s.

Wherever there is need and depression, there are people willing to take on tough conditions in order to eat and to feed loved ones. But most of the time, they lack anyone to champion their cause.

The Joads, a family of impoverished Oklahoman sharecroppers, lose everything when their farm is repossessed after a devastating drought and they are driven from their home to make the exhausting trek west to California.

Seduced by the prospect of opportunity and dignity, they invest everything they have in the journey. Then, forced to face the possibility that California may not be the Promised Land, they have no choice but to go on; nothing is left for them in Oklahoma.

Will the Joads achieve their simple dream of a house and a steady job? Or will theirs prove to be the impossible dream?

There is a cast of 20 with Damian O’Hair as Tom Joad, Sorcha Cusack as Ma Joad, Christopher Timothy as Pa Joad, and Rebecca Night playing the Rose of Sharon - all pivotal roles.

Cusack is rarely offstage in her incarnation as an heroic mother; there for everyone but herself and always with the courage to continue on, taking her ever-diminishing family onwards with her in cruel circumstances.

Of equal importance is Oliver Cotton as Jim Casy, the disillusioned preacher who goes along ‘for the ride’.  He with laconic understatement and develops the character into one of central importance. As the mouthpiece for Steinbeck’s longer rants, Casy becomes a leader in the socialist movement that so scares middle America.

The forces of cynicism are reinforced by Paul Barnhill leading a barbershop-singing quartet of second-hand car salesmen; and playing a roadside camp proprietor, a Californian contractor and a Hooper ranch guard.

The ingenious, wood-panelled set - sometimes depicting the inside of buildings, sometimes the outside - was eclipsed by a vintage truck that worked; even with 12 people hanging off it; at least until it blew up. The audience mainly laughed - perhaps desperate for light relief. It was hardly a comic moment!

On the night we attended, there were storms inside and outside the auditorium; those still ‘alive’ at the end of the production acted out the finale in drenched clothes. However, the rain had come to all. Those of the audience who were not already wet from being too close to the stage soon remedied that as they floundered out to the car park through a torrential downpour.

Synchronistically, a publication I have never had occasion to read before came my way the same day I saw the play. It was the Socialist Worker (No. 2159, of 11 July) with a double centre spread on the conditions in UK call centres; likening them to ‘bright satanic mills’ in relation to the darker ones in Victorian factories. This brought The Grapes of Wrath into immediate perspective.

Whereas vivacious tunes and dancing alleviate Oklahoma’s darker moments, the bitter taste of bile in the mouth builds up in The Grapes of Wrath until the very last moments of its surprise ending. And then it might choke you.

As a plea for social justice and compassion, The Grapes of Wrath is a timely examination of a nation in search of itself.

Co-produced with the English Touring Theatre, The Grapes of Wrath will travel onwards from Chichester Festival Theatre to six other regional centres.

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