THREE DAYS OF RAIN.

London.

THREE DAYS OF RAIN
by Richard Greenberg.

Apollo Theatre.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 3pm.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.

TICKETS: 0870 060 6615.
www.ambassadortickets.com (£3 transaction charge by ‘phone and online).
Review: Timothy Ramsden 11 February.

Time twist gives fascination to generational drama.
Structure matters in American dramatist Richard Greenberg’s play, as well it might given the importance of architecture in its characters’ lives. To see architect-partners, ebullient Theo and tongue-tied Ned, in their spacious studio, then find their offspring 35 years later piecing together their parents’ experiences from Ned’s laconic journal might be interesting enough.

But it’s considerably more intriguing because the later generation come before the interval, bursting into the bare, spacious room - given a ghostly grey unreality by designer Soutra Gilmour. This room reveals their inheritance - the journal, buildings and cash fortune, but also the sense of their parents’ relationships and the architects’ comparative skills - as influencing their lives.

If Ned stuttered over spoken words, he didn’t waste them on paper. Everything’s recorded flatly, including the reference to three days’ of rain. It’s after the interval, the studio filled with belongings, a drawing-board and mattress notably representing work and love, that the brief journal entry acquires its living context, as we see the lives being lived before the younger generation was born.

Back in 1960 Theo and Lina revel in the street as Ned works indoors. But the relationships change and as the downpour continues, Theo raging with frustration at his creative blockage, Lina leads Ned to begin the iconic building which made their name and fortune after it featured on the cover of Life magazine.

It’s here the play comes alive. And the performances in Jamie Lloyd’s production. Act one gives little to do but set-up its successor. And how far can you take a trio of characters who’ll disappear at the interval, without their future being referred to? But the filled-in lives of the older generation, when they were young, acquire significance from what’s been seen before.

And the performances gain depth. All three actors are strong throughout, but the first act gives a sense they’re giving good performances of Hollywood actors in cutesy stress-and-strain mode. With more to hold onto after the interval, James McAvoy and Nigel Harman bring their characters alive, while Lyndsey Marshal’s Lina splendid contrasts her contained Nan of act one.

Walker/Ned: James McEvoy.
Nan/Lina: Lyndsey Marshal.
Pip/Theo: Nigel Harman.

Director: Jamie Lloyd.
Designer: Soutra Gilmour.
Lighting: Jon Clark.
Sound: Matt McKenzie.
Music: Ben & Max Ringham.

2009-02-20 12:17:14