Sligo Drama Circle’s 50th Production

Sligo Drama Circle was founded in 1956. Since then, it has presented plays by major Irish, European and American playwrights. Drama Circle productions have won the premier awards at all the major drama festivals in the west and North West, while Summer Theatre has become an established part of Sligo’s tourist season. For it’s 50th production the Drama Circle will present John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” at Sligo Town Hall. The play will run from Saturday next February 24th until Tuesday February 27th.

“Of Mice and Men” is set in the farmlands of California. It deals with the lives of the “poor whites” – the mule skinners and the grain buckers on a grain farm. In particular, it tells the story of two men, Lennie and George – their hopes and dreams and their almost inevitable tragedy. John Steinbeck was the son of an Irish mother and a half-German father. After leaving university he led a roving life until he achieved success as a writer with the publication of “Tortilla Flat” in 1935. After that he wrote a number of novels, stories and plays including “The Grapes of Wrath” and “East of Eden”, both of which were successfully filmed. In 1962, John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in 1971.

from The Sligo Champion, February 23rd, 1973