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BY STUART DUNCAN
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
REVIEW
You sometimes forget that The Shakespeare Theatre in Madison not only handles classical projects with great style, but it also takes on the challenges of modern American drama with great confidence.
"The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck's 1939 potboiler of a proletarian novel was not only a best seller at the bookstores, but it was the 1940 Pulitzer Prize winner. It later became a fine motion picture and eventually was modified for the stage by Frank Galati. The play won the Tony Award as "Best Play."
The story tells us of the hardships faced by the Joad family as they pack up their lives and head from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to the promised green of California and what they firmly believe will be a better life.
Galati's adaptation has been hailed as "an epic achievement" and indeed the work covers most of the material covered by the novel. The Shakespeare Theatre has turned the work over to director Joe Discher who directed the critically acclaimed 2004 production of Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men."Actually Discher has directed such works as "Amadeus," "The Tempest," "Twelfth Night" and "The Fantasticks" to mention just a few from his 19 years in Madison.
Here he has created a minor miracle: a realistic panoply of a time lost past and the folks who lived in it. A trio of musicians (Nick Plakias (on guitar, banjo and harmonica), Jay Leibowitz (on guitar and Jaw harp) and a super-talented Connor Dugan Leszczuk on the fiddle, act as a sort of guide team, placing us at the different sites and filling us in on some of the characters as they appear.
A mostly veteran cast plus some children (24 in total) is led by Christian Conn as Tom Joad, (the role played by Henry Fonda in the film) with great help from Wendy Barrie-Wilson as his mother, John Little as his father, and Jim Mohr as his grandpa, who dies before he reaches the end of the journey. Plus fine performances from Pearce Bunting as the itinerant preacher who joins the trip and Michael Daly in a variety of roles including an aggressive agricultural officer, a car salesman and a camp proprietor.
But the standout of the evening is director Discher who handles his company like a master chess player, drawing pictures at times, pulling the heartstrings at other times, finding tiny character movements which might convey mood and motivation, drawing the threads together deftly. All in all, it's much more fun than the book.
"The Grapes of Wrath" continues at The Shakespeare Theatre, on the campus of Drew University in Madison, through Nov. 15. Performances: Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday at 8 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; and Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. Ticket prices range from $39.00 to $54.00. For information, call (973) 408-5600.
