By Mia Fatuzzo ’15, News Section Editor
While John Steinbeck suggests in his acclaimed 1937 novella Of Mice and Men that “The best-laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry,” Ms. Floyd’s plan for the junior class to see Of Mice and Men on stage, as presented by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, went perfectly.
On Wednesday, November 6th, the entire Country Day eleventh grade class, aboard a convoy of yellow school buses, traveled to the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s downtown theater to catch a matinee performance of the play. The outing was facilitated by a generous grant from the Parent’s Association and organized by the literature-loving Ms. Floyd.
Of Mice and Men, at just under one hundred pages, adapts naturally to the stage. It has been presented as a play since 1937, when the novel was still residing on bestseller lists. Predating both the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Awards, the play was instead recognized by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, which deemed it the Best Play in 1938.
The production as presented by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company has received glowing reviews: it’s described as a show brimming with “impassioned performers” who fervently bring to life a heart-wrenching story. Junior Hannah Taylor enjoyed the excursion: “The play helped me get a better understanding of Steinbeck’s characters. While I liked reading the novel, I think going to see Of Mice and Men at the theater really helped my classmates and me further deconstruct the complex underlying message sometimes hard to comprehend whilst reading the novel.”
Kacie Bradfish ‘15 was also enthusiastic about the play, commenting “The play was very well done, especially considering how hard [it must have been] to portray the roles without overstepping boundaries. At certain points it may have been a bit overdone but overall it was very good. ”
Pratiti Ghosh-Dastidar ‘15 too found the play enthralling, explaining, “I loved Cincinnati Shakespeare’s version of Of Mice and Men. It was absolutely heart-wrenching to see how George was forced to separate from his companion Lennie and their dream of ‘living off the fat [of their own] land’ because of the harsh reality.”
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