Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Ties That Bind

In his acceptance speech for the 1962 Nobel Prize in literature, John Steinbeck said, “The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man’s proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit.” The author embodies these words in Of Mice and Men, a novel that poignantly depicts the experience of the common man. Set in Depression-era California, it explores the bond between farmworkers Lennie, who is physically large but lacking in mental capacity, and George, his smaller, intelligent companion. Ian Belknap directs an adaptation of this gripping tale coproduced by award-winning theater troupes the Acting Company and the Guthrie Theater.