This is from someone we all know and love…

Of Mice and Men

The two characters I chose for my movement study in Of Mice and Men were Lennie and George. We’ll start with Lennie. I saw the actors’ movement choices as very confused. By that I mean he made it seem as if Lennie did not know what to do next. Very clumsy, loose, and an almost stop-motion animated movement choices related the character wonderfully, in my opinion. I Went with animal images to look for in the performance. I saw in Lennie a cow. Big, dumb, clumsy, and complacent, he very much reminded me of that animal. Another thing I noticed about the actors’ movement choices was that when Lennie was proud, he was very erect, but when was ashamed or scared, he slumped quite a bit. This brought the performance a very real quality.

George, on the other hand, was very, well, quick. His movement choices were very direct. In addition, when George was tense, he moved very little, and when he did he moved stiffly. When relaxed his movements were almost languid. When he became angry, his movement shouted, and flailing fist-pounding abounded. I thought that these varied movements indeed helped make George more real to the audience. I saw, in George, a cat, the reasons ones I named above.

In my opinion, both of these actor’s movement choices helped their performances. I’ve seen Of Mice and Men done three different times, and this was by far the best interpretation I’ve seen done. I think a lot of that hinged on their movement. After all, if it doesn’t move like a real person, it can’t be a real person, right?