The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
Cast by Testy McTestface
Steinbeck’s classic novel of the Great Depression is as vivid now as ever. The story focuses on a family of Oklahoma sharecroppers, farmers who work another man’s land for a share of the crops. Driven from their home by drought and poverty they take to the road in a battered old truck and make their way to California to look for work. When they arrive they find hundreds of others like them being forced to work for breadline wages. they begin working as fruit pickers, strike-breakers replacing the people who have been trying to establish a union but their consciences force them to leave.
Jeremy Allen White
as Tom Joad
His portrayal of vulnerable yet determined working-class men in Shameless and The Bear demonstrates the quiet intensity and moral complexity Tom Joad requires.
Laura Linney
as Ma Joad
Her career demonstrates remarkable skill at portraying conflicted, determined women holding families together through complex circumstances with nuanced restraint.
David Morse
as Pa Joad
His career-long specialization in weathered, dignified working men facing loss makes him ideal for portraying a farmer stripped of his authority and purpose.
John Turturro
as Grampa Joad
His facility with both comedy and pathos, combined with a character-actor's ability to embody specific regional types, fits the role's tonal requirements.
Kaitlyn Dever
as Rose of Sharon
Dever's natural warmth paired with an underlying steel makes her ideal for a young woman who starts naive and ends transformed by hardship.
Clancy Brown
as Jim Casy
His gravelly voice and imposing but gentle screen presence suit a former preacher who's become a hardened but soulful wanderer.
Matilda Lawler
as Ruthie Joad
Her understated naturalism and capacity to portray children dealing with adult realities, evident in *Kodachrome*, suit a character shaped by poverty and displacement.
Uncast
as Winfield Joad