Hall Around Town: Kerrigan is overwhelming as Lennie in the San Clemente production of 'Of Mice and Men,' continuing Thursdays through Sundays through Jan. 31.
Rick Kerrigan, who has both directed and acted in more than a few Cabrillo Playhouse hits the past few years, delivers the performance of his life in John Steinbeck's brutal tale of migrant field workers struggling for a stake on a Salinas Valley ranch in the Depression-choked 1930s.
As Lennie, the feeble-minded, strong-as-an-ox, problem-prone gentle giant tortured by his always just-out-of-reach dreams as he's led along by understanding friend George – bright enough and normal enough but trapped by life – as they try to stay out of trouble in a world filled with trouble, Kerrigan is absolutely overwhelming in "Of Mice and Men" as those poetic "best laid plans" go awry.
Lon Chaney Jr., who long ago immortalized Lennie in the 1939 movie, would be the first to welcome Rick to the club, and Steinbeck himself would no doubt jump out of his grave if he could to send him some kind of a medal.
Director Austin Peay also deserves a bag full of medals for getting it all together so powerfully and getting the most on this tiny stage out of his entire cast of 10, including Maggie Parto, the lone woman in the play, a UCI theater and South Coast Repertory vet who dazzles as the lonely tramp ranch wife with a roving eye who lures Lenny into a bad place.
Community theater doesn't get any better than what's now going on in our magical 66-seat playhouse at the laid-back corner of Ola Vista and Cabrllo, one block off San Clemente's "Broadway," better known as Avenida Del Mar.
Toni and I experienced the whole emotional-to-the-max tug of war on opening night Friday, and it was amazing how on the money they all were so early in the run. I'm still clenching my fists and nervously wringing my hands and tugging aimlessly at my jeans, just like the tortured Lennie.
Steinbeck isn't for everyone, especially his Salinas Valley stories topped by big-daddy grimster "The Grapes of Wrath." But Steinbeck loyalists, and there are plenty, will put this one atop a special pedestal.
Peay, obviously a dedicated Steinbeck fan, says he'd also like to take on "Grapes" one of these days, and after proving himself a miracle man with this one, why not? C'mon, Austin, you have the key. Open the vault and bring it on.
Well, you have to see it. "Mice" starts its second week Thursday night and will run Thursday through Saturday nights at 8, plus 2 p.m. Sunday matinees, until Jan. 31. Tickets are $20, a steal for this one, and the box-office number is 949-492-0465.
They have softened the despised "n-word" used frequently in the novella, but all the rest of the dialogue covering the pain, frustration and heartache is loyal to Steinbeck's typewriter.
Matthew Dodd, back from "Lend Me a Tenor," is also terrific as George, as are Colin Kirkpatrick, the In-N-Out Burger flipper out of Saddleback College, as Curley; Rick Hargrave as the one-handed Candy; Frederick Harris Lawrence as the outcast African American not allowed in the bunk house; and Armando Dubon Jr. from the San Francisco Actors Studio making his local debut as Slim.
Brent Dye, English teacher and screenwriter John Marzo and Peay himself also help fill the stage admirably as rough-cut ranch hands.
My congrats to them all. I don't have any Tonys to pass out, but I hope they will settle for these humble Hallies. Pass it along.