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The Grapes of Wrath @ The Rep

23rd Oct 2009

SET amidst the Great Depres­sion in Amer­ica, The Grapes of Wrath depicts the effects of this dev­as­tat­ing event and fol­lows the Joad fam­ily on their jour­ney to find work in Cal­i­for­nia, after their farm is repos­sessed fol­low­ing a drought. Directed by Jonathon Church, this pro­duc­tion allows the involve­ment of a large cast, who for the major­ity were very tal­ented with the excep­tion of a cou­ple of actors whose fluc­tu­at­ing accents were at times, less than consistent.

The most strik­ing aspect of this pro­duc­tion was the excel­lent use of the set and props, which when looked upon ini­tially seemed sim­ple, how­ever the onstage stream, work­ing car and rain­fall sug­gested oth­er­wise. Other aspects of artis­tic direc­tion shone through, such as the pro­jected images of bill­board adver­tise­ments from the time of the Great Depres­sion, illus­trat­ing the con­text sub­tly in a taste­ful fashion.

Over­all, the play was a pow­er­ful, well-directed per­for­mance that is arguably top­i­cal in the cur­rent finan­cial climate.