WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING To 4 July.
London.
WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING
by Andrew Bovell.
Almeida Theatre To 4 July 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 3pm.
Audio-described 27 June 3pm (+Touch Tour 1.30pm).
Captioned 20 June 3pm, 30 June.
Post-show discussion 22 June.
Runs 2hr 10min No interval.
TICKETS: 020 7359 4404.
www.almeida.co.uk
Intelligent and moving drama..
It’s easy to ignore the second syllable of the term ‘playwright’. Yet the craft shaping a play is important. Some are IKEAd- together for quick assembly. Others, like this of Australian playwright Andrew Bovell, are intricate creations It’s even finer than his Speaking in Tongues which brought his work to Britain, at Derby then Hampstead in 1998.
When the Rain moves between London and Australia, beginning with a lone father in 2039 Alice Springs waiting to meet the son he’s not seen for years. It ends with their meeting; by when a family history has been filled-in through scenes leaping back and forth in generation-sized gaps, reaching as far back as 1959 England. The author’s skill lies in the careful ordering of revelations between parents and children, eventually allowing what had appeared disparate events and unaccountable behaviour to form one big picture.
What gradually emerges is not only explanation: why a bright young wife turns to drink and can hardly talk to her grown-up son, or someone walks to his death at Ayers Rock. There’s a web of incidents, coincidence, character and fate binding people across decades, bringing together intense love and anxiety born of partial understanding. And, to show rain is no random symbol, individuals’ survival comes to be placed within that of humanity overall.
All this could easily seem contrived, except that the script gives exceptional life to each character. So does Michael Attenborough’s superb, scrupulously-acted Almeida production. What at first seems inexplicable: a character’s sudden fall, the line-up at a dining-table, falls into place as events proceed. And that line-up, with only one character removed, eventually returns as people pass several objects in a chain from forebear to descendant – an image of descent, not only of the things themselves, but of the experiences they represent. Continuity’s built too as versions of one character at different ages stand together between their scenes.
Miriam Buether’s essentially neutral stage environment allows projections at key moments, but otherwise creates a sense both of continuity and unknowing. In acting, direction and production, the Almeida gives Bovell’s fine play the quality it deserves.
Gabriel York: Richard Hope.
Elizabeth Law (older): Phoebe Nicholls.
Gabriel Law: Tom Mison.
Elizabeth Law (younger) Lisa Dillon.
Henry Law: Jonathan Cullen.
Joe Ryan: Simon Burke.
Gabrielle York (older): Leah Purcell.
Gabrielle York (younger): Naomi Bentley.
Andrew Price: Sargon Yelda.
Director: Michael Attenborough.
Designer: Miriam Buether.
Lighting: Colin Grenfell.
Sound: Paul Arditti.
Music: Stephen Warbeck.
Video/Projection: Lorna Heavey.
Movement/Assistant director: Imogen Knight.
Dialect coach: Catherine Weate.
Assistant designer: Alicia Farrow.
2009-05-25 03:31:02