Any play that opens with a fish falling from the sky into the hands of a screaming man is surely worth a look in. Thankfully, Julie Baz’s production for the Sydney Independent Theatre Company delivers more than just an ostentatious opening stunt.
It is a measured and confident performance of the play that has scooped a string of industry trophies over the last four years.
The script, written by Andrew Bovell (of Lantana fame) is a complex interweaving of several relationships spanning a whole century, several cultures, and two continents. The action shifts back and forth between London, Adelaide and the Coorong as the characters grapple with the capital letter abstract nouns: Love, Loss, Memory, the Past. It is an ambitious piece of writing, and aside from the predictable recurrence of what seemed like an avalanche of leitmotifs, it rewards its audience for their patience.
Christine Falsone was outstanding as the young Elizabeth Law, commanding the British accent with ease and never slipping up even in scenes of intense conflict. She displayed great emotional range and was instrumental in Baz’s interpretation, which is built on realism.
Rebecca Scott also deserves special mention for what seemed an effortless portrayal of the young Gabrielle York’s yearning to escape the suffocation of small town Australia. There were moments of cringing explication when the older version of her character, played by Erin McMullen, verbalized her inner turmoil, but this is more a criticism of the script than the acting, though future interpretations would do well to cut out these unnecessary lines.
Alex Nicholas delivered a solid outing as Gabriel York and Henry Law even though parts of his opening and closing monologues felt slightly overwrought and the accent seemed a bit off on occasion. Jacob Thomas was also solid as Gabriel Law and Andrew Price, as was Cherilyn Price as Elizabeth Law the elder.
Severe technical difficulties with the lighting did not overshadow what was a self-assured display. At the end of the performance it became known that many of the lighting boards had malfunctioned but full credit goes to the light and design crew who improvised so well that no one really noticed anything was amiss.
The choice of using straight out realism to approach this highly surrealist script raised some difficulties, however. The series of impossible coincidences, narrative symmetries, bizarre antics and silent, mechanistic vignettes as the characters shifted around the stage listlessly, all seem right at home in the land of the surreal. Transporting those into a context of highly strung emotional realism created some discord, at least for this observer.
No doubt entertaining but also jarring. Perhaps this was precisely the intention of the director. In any case, this is a production well worth seeing.
Rating: 3 ½ stars
When the Rain Stops Falling
Written by Andrew Bovell
Director: Julie Baz
Design & Technical Director: David Jeffrey
Composer: Sarah de Jong
Lighting & Stage Manager: Nicholas Manley
Assistant Stage Manager: Samantha Caughran
Accent Coach: Gabrielle Rogers
With: Christine Falsone, David Jeffrey, Erin McMullen, Alex Nicholas, Cherilyn Price, Rebecca Scott, Jacob Thomas
Sydney Independent Theatre Company, Newtown
30 October – 17 November
