WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING by Andrew Bovell, directed by Peter Hinton (Shaw). Runs September 8, 14, 15 and 17 at 8 pm matinees September 10 and 11 at 2 pm. $50. 1-800-511-7429 shawfest.com. See listing. Rating: NNNN
In the opening moments of Australian playwright Andrew Bovell’s When The Rain Stops Falling, a fish descends from the sky, landing at the feet of Gabriel York, a man about to meet the son he abandoned years before.
Fish, fathers, sons and family fill Bovell’s puzzle box of a play, which traces the lives of four generations of a clan. Its action moves back and forth in time, from England to Australia, as segments of their lives start to link and make surprising connections.
Director Peter Hinton’s excellent production teases out the clues in the script, with the Shaw Festival ensemble giving vibrant life to characters troubled by a past shrouded in mystery and, occasionally, dreams of a brighter future.
It might take a while to sort out the nine characters – four are called Gabriel or Gabrielle – but the genealogical tree in the program, which is worth a look before the lights dim, sorts everyone out, and projected dates above the set let us know the time period we’re in.
The family saga, an epic one, begins chronologically with Londoners Henry and Elizabeth Law (Graeme Somerville and Tara Rosling) in the 1960s forced to leave his family, Henry moves to Australia. 20 years later, his son Gabriel Law (Jeff Meadows) can’t get a reason from his mother (now played by Donna Belleville) as to why his father left and tracks him to an Australian sacred site, Uluru (Ayers Rock).
In Australia we meet Gabrielle York (played at different ages by Krista Colosimo and Wendy Thatcher) and Joe Ryan (Peter Millard), who becomes a major player in her life, Gabrielle’s son Gabriel York (Ric Reid) and his son Andrew (Wade Bogert-O’Brien).
Bovell’s play deals with secrets, hidden pain, revelations and the hint of reconciliation giving too much narrative would amount to revealing spoilers. Natural disasters echo familial ones, the past has a tragic hold on the present and happiness seems ephemeral at best.
The action, with its repeated lines, names and relationships, takes place around and on top of a designer Camellia Koo’s massive table, the site of meals that overlap in time and of dramatic confrontations it also doubles, strategically, as Uluru.
The cast is first-rate, beginning with Reid’s troubled Gabriel, whose anger, agony and shame are clear from the start. Somerville gives sympathy to a figure who viewers have a reason to dislike, while Rosling as his academic, detail-retaining wife brings a fascinating intensity to her performance. Kolosimo adds a subtle neediness to the younger Gabrielle’s toughness, and Wade-Bogert nicely captures Andrew’s openness and shy optimism. Millard brings strong emotion to Joe, who steps unexpectedly into this family’s pain and feels it in his own way.
As the older versions of the two female characters, Belleville and Thatcher offer two distinct presentations of despair and isolation, the former retreating to drink and the latter confounded by memory loss. Both, like the other actors, are excellent at touching our emotions.
The productions in the Shaw Festival’s Studio Theatre have short runs this year if you missed Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog, presented in association with Obsidian Theatre, it’s playing in Toronto as part of Obsidian’s upcoming season. But When The Rain Stops Falling won’t be coming to town catch it at Niagara-on-the-Lake before it closes September 17.
