By J. Scott Hill

I once quit a job without having anything else lined up. I was fed up and naive. I thought I knew how much money I had saved and how long that money would last. I thought I would find another job no problem, but it was a problem. It wasn’t long before I was selling my blood plasma just to have some money coming in. I am lucky enough to be in better circumstances right now, although millions of other Americans are not.

John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath deals with the worst financial climate America has yet faced — the Great Depression. With the Depression already hitting hard, the Dust Bowl destroyed crops in the Great Plains. Steinbeck’s fictional Joad family packs everything they own into a single beat-up truck and heads from the plains to California and the promise of work.

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre presents this stage adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath at a time when it could not resonate more. The adaptation is Frank Galati’s — the script he directed at Steppenwolf twenty years ago and took to Broadway (and even to American Playhouse on PBS). In the original Steppenwolf production, the set was largely abstract and empty — the focus being on the rickety, overflowing Joad-family truck; a similar focus is given to the truck in this production. This set is suggestive of Steppenwolf’s without being a knock-off — I’ll say it’s an homage. The current set is a toned-down version of the Steppenwolf set, like the current real economic situation is a toned-down version of the economic situation in the play — strongly analogous, a difference of degree. Kudos to Scenic Designer Alan Donahue and Director Genevieve Thompson for pulling these intertexts together.

Unfortunately, this overriding metaphor of “a toned-down version” is taken too far. The story drags in places, and the resets lag between scenes (the cast could use the assistance of a couple of costumed stagehands to move that truck around). The characters are all worn out, true; but the production must not let the audience get worn out along with those characters. Even so, Thompson pulls solid performances from the entire ensemble.

Several performances are worth mentioning. Durable, ubiquitous character actor John O’Lesky is a frustrated yet persevering Pa Joad. Paul Joseph breathes wisdom and strength into Uncle John’s weaknesses.

Tom Joad is played by Wes Clark with a smooth “Aw, shucks” manner and, when need be, a firmly set jaw. He walks around like a cowboy, but he mops his brow like a farmer — tough as nails, right as rain.

Jennifer Mathews holds the entire show together as Ma Joad. Granma Joad may be the matriarch of this family, but Ma Joad is its power plant and its sage. Mathews gives strength to vulnerability and common sense to madness. She is too busy keeping the family together and in motion to tolerate much nonsense — a woman strong enough to prop up a family of broken men.

Jim Casy is the most conflicted character in this story, and Stephen Dunn plays this flawlessly. Dunn internalizes and externalizes Casy’s tortured soul in such a way that most of his brooding goes unseen out of a sense of Western reserve, but flashes of the wistful and broken man poke through that culturally-calm façade along with a smidgen of crazy.

The most talked-about, most moving scene in The Grapes of Wrath — the novel or this adaptation — is the act of Roman Charity at the end. Jenn Remke had been competent as Rose of Sharon up to this final scene — as the entire ensemble had been competent. Once this dire epilogue started, it was as if someone had flipped a switch inside of her and the actor and the character lit up the theatre. Rose of Sharon’s interplay with Ma Joad — spoken and especially unspoken — made gooseflesh and quelled disbelief. During the brave, almost holy, final moments of the show, audible sobs could be heard from members of the audience. Beautiful and sad and heroic and pathetic, Jenn Remke takes the most difficult scene in the show and carries it in her arms. Her website says that this will be her last show in Chicago before relocating to New York, so come see her now.

If only the whole show would have been as well paced and engaging as the end. Still, this is a pretty strong production of The Grapes of Wrath. The callback of this production to the famed Steppenwolf production nicely parallels the callback of the current state of the world to the world of this script.

Take the time to see Infamous Commonwealth Theatre’s revival of The Grapes of Wrath. No matter how you are holding up through this recession, you will walk away from this show empathizing with the Joads’ frustration and loss, and counting your blessings.

3 STARS

(“The Grapes of Wrath”, presented by Infamous Commonwealth Theatre, runs through May 24 at The Raven Theatre Complex, 6157 N. Clark St., (773) 338-2177.)

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre

Jenn Remke

Raven Theatre

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