The Grapes of Wrath Reviews – National Theatre London

"A stealthily exacting staging of Steinbeck’s wrenching epic"

"The National’s carefully restrained yet searing production of Steinback’s bleak Depression-era classic exerts an iron grip"

"It is one of the quiet pleasures – if pleasure is the right word – of this carefully restrained show, which uses Frank Galati’s rigidly faithful 1988 adaptation, that she does not. Make no mistake: it’s not a jolly evening."

"Yes, it feels a bit static. Yes, there is no radical reimagining or reinvention at play. Galati’s adaptation could not be said to be particularly exciting. The stand-out performance ought to come from Harry Treadaway’s Tom; instead it’s Natey Jones as the spiritually conflicted yet morally heroic preacher Casy you can’t keep from watching. But as the story inches towards its quite extraordinary final scene, which is not worth spoiling for those who don’t know it, Cracknell’s stealthily exacting production exerts an iron grip. Nerves not quite ripped, then, but unquestionably seared."

"So bleak it’s almost comical"

"Carrie Cracknell’s epic adaptation of John Steinbeck's modern classic imbues the story with a universal resonance"

"Carrie Cracknell’s sweeping and epic production of stylishly sculpted ensemble work, of an adaptation that won Frank Galati a host of Tony Awards, makes us uncomfortably, insistently aware of the modern-day parallels, of well-intentioned migrant workers at the mercy of factors far out of their control."

"The luminous Jones quietly radiates Ma’s unshakeable decency, expressed through continual small acts of kindness, and Hicks projects an inner goodness that has not been dented. There is huge power to be harnessed, suggest Ma and also Steinbeck, through sticking together and looking out for each other."

"Its themes remain as relevant and as galling as ever"

"Moving performances animate Carrie Cracknell’s stately, sombre take on the classic parable of poverty and perseverance"

"Directed by Carrie Cracknell, this is a slow-moving, episodic piece – an impression not lessened by the decision to bookend each tight, self-contained scene with passages of folksy live music. Cracknell’s production is refreshingly unsentimental: the characters feel grounded, their stoic response to suffering a survival strategy rather than romanticised heroism."

"The production has a gloomy but gorgeous aesthetic, due largely to Guy Hoare’s lighting design, which fills the stage with velvety shadow pierced by stabbing headlights or pale sunlight, fuzzy behind dust clouds."

"... Cherry Jones provides an indomitable moral and emotional core to her extended family as matriarch Ma. She makes clear the constant hard work Ma puts into maintaining optimism, skilfully revealing hints of grief or vulnerability that she deliberately smothers with kindness and generosity. Her interactions with Mirren Mack’s fragile Rose of Sharon are quietly heartbreaking, full of an unspoken understanding that tragedy is always near."

"Dark moments on a long jalopy ride through a shattered world"

"The hardship in Steinbeck’s classic Depression-era novel is well captured in Frank Galati’s atmospheric adaptation, but you long for more tension, more to happen"

"... while Carrie Cracknell’s drama is always big on atmosphere, it wilts into something less bold, more timidly documentary, in its effort to capture the large-scale sense of hope against despair in the US during the Great Depression."

"Slow-paced and with a lack of incident in the first half, it feels more like a stately procession than a moving, breathing piece of theatre. A five-piece band is woven into the drama, and musicians stand among actors with guitar, banjo, accordion, fiddle and harmonica. But this brings yet more stilled atmosphere above action, along with the strains of singer-songwriter Maimuna Memon’s deep rich voice."

"The powerhouse cast led by Cherry Jones is compelling"

"Though this initially understated Steinbeck adaptation steers clear of pastiche, a melodromatic second half threatens to veer into parody"

"Despite a powerhouse cast led by Broadway legend Cherry Jones and our own Harry Treadaway, this adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Depression-era odyssey by the late Chicagoan theatre-maker Frank Galati is enjoyable for all the wrong reasons."

"So for the first half we watch beautifully lit and composed scenarios – including a sumptuously evoked river bathing scene – and splendidly understated acting, with little real sense jeopardy or of life at the edge. When a sense of desperation does ramp up in the second half, the melodramatic scenarios and the stylised dialogue threaten to tip over into parody."

"That it still works, and steers just clear of pastiche, is down to the elegance of Cracknell’s direction and Alex Eales’ set."

"This handsomely brooding Steinbeck adaptation could have used a fresher text and bolder direction"

"The National Theatre absolutely loves to get a hip young playwright involved on update duties when it stages a revival of a classic play. So it’s a shame it didn’t commission - or possibly wasn’t allowed to commission - a fresher adaptation of John Steinbeck’s monumental 1939 novel than this starchy 1988 take by Frank Galati. It’s not awful or anything, but its reverence for Steinbeck’s text – and determination to retain most of his characters and much of his dialogue – leaves it feeling like a radio play: lots of named characters talking, not quite enough happening (in the first half, anyway)."

"Director Carrie Cracknell has put a fantastic cast together. Harry Treadaway is magnetic as the steely but decent Tom Joad... And US stage star Cherry Jones – who played Nan Pierce in ‘Succession’ – is compelling as pragmatic, driven Joad matriarch Ma. Still, they feel a little sidelined by the text’s determination to cram everything in rather than focus on the leads – they’re substantial roles, but perhaps not to the degree they feel in the book."

"Steinbeck’s hymn to human misery and endurance is epic but scrappy on stage"

"Cherry Jones is wry and warm in Carrie Cracknell’s revival of Steinbeck’s story about a sprawling clan of dustbowl refugees in the Depression era – but the elements of this three-hour production don’t always fully connect"

"Dreaming isn’t enough, it argues. The system is rigged. God doesn’t care. Collective struggle is the answer. These subversive messages shine through Carrie Cracknell’s epic but scrappy three-hour adaptation, which trails behind a sprawling clan of dustbowl refugees in the Depression era."

"There’s an inevitable grinding misery to this story of a clan of poor workers being picked off by the sharp claws of state brutality, disease and starvation. But the tone of Cracknell’s production is weirdly perky initially – perhaps because Frank Galati’s faithful 1988 adaptation carefully gives each family member their party piece, not picking favourites."

"It’s brutal, powerful stuff. But somehow this production still doesn’t have the aesthetic or thematic boldness to link together its two halves, to rethink the book’s hackneyed (and biologically implausible) final image, or to show us which members of this travelling family we should hitch our hearts to."

"Verdict: Labour of Love"

"Carrie Cracknell’s impressive production reduces the show’s forecast three hours and 20 minutes to a mere two hours and 45 (including interval). For this mercy we must be grateful — although it is still repetitive, thanks to recurring myths about California, the legend of the jailbird son’s conviction and the sometimes comically hokey chit-chat."

"Particularly inspiring is Harry Treadaway as hair-trigger son Tom, who is out on parole. Cherry Jones, too, is exemplary as Ma Joad — a fountain of stoical proverbs — while Natey Jones is charismatic as the preacher who’s lost his faith in all but humanity."

"No one will come to this in search of a good time. But if you have the necessary Protestant work ethic, you won’t be disappointed."

"Director Carrie Cracknell resists the temptation to elaborate on Frank Gelati's reverential 1988 adaptation by underscoring modern parallels of economic migrants, nor does she overplay the Biblical references. But it leaves the production too often stranded in a dramatic stasis as the Joads' jalopy is pushed around onstage overloaded with family members, some of whom die on the journey."

"No one gets out of here awake"

"After a spectacular opening scene, this doggedly doleful staging of the Steinbeck classic is a punishing three hours at the Lyttelton, National Theatre"

"Nobody will leave this show in any doubt of the effects of poverty or economic migrancy. Yet there’s something so doggedly doleful about Carrie Cracknell’s almost three-hour production that it’s hard work sitting through it."

"Alas, we soon settle into a faithful, handsome but stolid retelling of the book, interspersed with folk songs by Maimuna Memon that deepen the atmosphere and cover the scene changes, but lengthen the running time too."

"Harry Treadaway as the morally outraged Tom Joad is a sturdy rather than magnetic central presence. Natey Jones is compelling as the former pastor Jim Casy, though, and the Broadway star Cherry Jones has an effortless, sometimes startling toughness as Ma Joad. Everything doubles in resonance when she is centre stage."

"There is no lack of things to admire in this The Grapes of Wrath, but numbingly little to enjoy."

"Slow-motion Steinbeck"

"... it is hard to feel the need for this theatrical version. Carrie Cracknell’s production of Frank Galati’s adaptation has a patient, restrained performance by Cherry Jones as the Joad family matriarch. It is partly steered by the commanding, cool voice of Maimuna Memon – she of Standing at the Sky’s Edge – who delivers her own keening country songs."

"Yet, apart from an opening swirl of dust bowl darkness, this scarcely evokes the novel’s terrain or suggests the great distances, emotional and physical, that are travelled. The evening is more like tottering along a pavement than struggling across great wastes of land."