A very moving and well performed play. It is perhaps the best thing I have seen at Chichester for a long time. Everything came together to give a stunning evening. The acting was superb. Christopher Timothy played the part of Pa Joad. Portraying the anguish and futility of his life excellently. The dusk bowls in Oklahoma were caused by the farmers themselves, by the intensive farming methods. How much they new then that it was their fault I do not know.
The large cast of 22, made great use of the thrust stage and used it is such a way that you felt the play is going to be diminished in a normal theatre. You wanted to feel their hope in looking for jobs, but knew that it was a scam to pay the least amount of money to each worker. You could say it ended on a high note, as a death was put to use in helping another human being live. It was a sad play in that it showed how those that have exploited those that hadn’t. It also showed the shear determination of the human spirit in adversity.
Finally the set and water effects were amazing. The backdrop was used part as a billboard showing old adverts which added comment to what was happening on the stage and also as an optical illusion to disconcert you. By the end of the evening you would swear that they had tipped the stage so you felt that the audience were walking downhill to the exits!
All in all a very good evening.