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The great wine press of the wrath of God
PAUL DONOVAN admires a brave attempt to stage John Steinbeck’s epic tale of poverty-stricken 1930s America
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING: The cast of The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath
National Theatre 

 

IT is a very difficult task to adapt John Steinbeck’s brilliant 1939 book, the Grapes of Wrath, for the stage. It is a brave dramatic act to even try, let alone achieve.

This attempt at the National Theatre, using Frank Galati’s adaptation, makes a great effort, encapsulating many of the moods of desperation and defiance of adversity, but whether it totally gets there is open to question.

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