Behind the scenes: Of Mice and Men #3

Written by Caroline Baum

Week Three: The Opera Centre, Sydney



Anthony Dean Griffey as Lennie in
Houston Opera's Of Mice and Men



Suddenly there are rifles and pistols in the room. Props, of course, but there’ll be a real gun with an armourer out on set when Bruce takes the cast to film a scene in the bush near Ryde.

‘I’ll come on the bus with the cast and weapons,’ says Stage Manager Crissie Higgins, making it sound as if she’s bringing a picnic.

Film crews are notoriously pampered when it comes to catering. Virginia Duigan, Bruce’s wife has taken on the task of sourcing decent coffee and food for the team he has assembled. They never start the day without a hot breakfast, but will have to make a sacrifice on this occasion.

‘And we’ll need an urn, loo paper, and a first aid kit,’ says Chrissie.

The plan is to shoot the scene, in which the posse is out hunting Lennie after he’s killed Curley’s wife, in the morning but grade it to look as if it’s taking place in late afternoon or dusk. 

‘Don’t shave’ Bruce reminds the cast, 'I don't want you looking glabrous’

‘I thought you said glamourous,’ jokes Barry.

‘We can do stubble in make up,’ notes Cath.

The puppy Tony has to pet now has a name, Walnut, to suit its diminutive size.

The Kleenex labrador (see Blog 2) gets Maestro Molino’s stamp of approval on his first day.

‘I like the sound of his panting,’ he says of the dog’s uncanny ability to breathe in time with the music (that’s what you get when you work with pros).



Blocking sketches for Opera Australia's
production of Of Mice and Men



Jackie now has the wig on; it looks better than expected, not too brassy or peroxide. The test is what happens when she unpins the hair so that Tony can stroke it, with fateful consequences. Wig maker Philip Cox pops in to watch the scene and see how his creation behaves. It is so used to being held up that it resists a bit, bouncing back into shape. Jackie has to hold on to it so the ends don’t flip up like wired plaits.

Wigs can cause havoc in opera, like the time in Vienna in the 70s when Galina Vishnevskaya as Tosca did not realise that her hairpiece had caught fire as she stood near a flaming sconce. She kept singing until her Scarpia and Cavaradossi came to her rescue, though she still suffered minor burns to her scalp.

As Candy, Jud is perfecting his limp with the aid of a trick Bruce has taught him from the movies. He puts a small piece of eraser in his shoe to mimic a pebble and it makes it genuinely uncomfortable for him to walk on.

There’s a lot of discussion about the final scene in which George shoots Lennie in the back of the head.

‘I’d like lots of blood, why can’t we have one of those exploding blood plasters?’ asks deputy stage manager Garry Alcorn who clearly wants a Tarantino effect.

‘Do you think it’s possible that Lennie would stand up and turn around after being shot at point blank range?’ Maestro Molino asks politely.

‘Remember that woman in the US who was shot recently at close range five times and she’s now walking and talking?’ Bruce counters, referring to the miraculous recovery of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

‘Mythbusters did a program about it,’ says Chrissie, inadvertently betraying her viewing habits.

‘Those rifles look a bit new, we better kick them around a bit to age them,’ she adds while Barry tries out a Luger for size.

‘We have to get the gunshot exactly right, not just the timing, but the smoke,’ insists Bruce.

‘If it doesn’t sound and look right we’re history.’

Some things are easier in the movies.