Andrew Bovell’s “When The Rain Stops Falling” is a challenging play to mount for a number of reasons, and Flinders University Performing Arts Society (FUPAS) has successfully met those challenges in what is a most pleasing production.
Founded only in 2018, it might be said that FUPAS have come of age with this show: they have grappled with a provocative script; it has been directed thoughtfully and with vision; the cast have constructed their characters with purpose and sincerity; and the production elements (lighting, sound, setting, costuming) have been designed and executed with clear intention. It all fits. For a show that is written to be performed in a single sitting of close to two hours without an interval, from an audience member’s perspective the time races by in a flash and one is left quite astonished by what one has witnessed.
This is a testimony to Bovell’s wonderful and masterfully written script, and to what FUPAS have done with it.
The plot is potentially difficult follow, with the action spanning nearly a hundred years as it follows the tragic and shocking intertwined circumstances of two families over four generations. Bovell’s script is not sequential, and scenes are variously played out in the past, present and future. To make matters potentially more confusing, some characters have the same (or almost the same) names, and young and older versions of some characters are onstage at the same time! But there is purpose in all this and FUPAS have worked very hard to ensure Bovell’s intention is clear.
Being a youth theatre company, and drawing its acting and production personnel from only (mostly?) Flinders University, FUPAS have not been able (or willing?) to cast older actors in older roles. Rather, careful choices in costuming and hairdressing are used to differentiate between generations, as do consistency in mannerisms. This reviewer can honestly say that he very quickly saw only what FUPAS wanted him to see: for the most part the cast were entirely believable and convincing.
The setting is simple and minimalistic, but it is all that it needs to be. It is a case of less is more. A large table occupies stage centre and is flanked by two skeletal windows upstage that look out onto a cyclorama upon which video footage of falling rain is continuously projected. Throughout there is a cold and bleak soundscape that adds to the impression of trouble and impending doom.
When The Rain Stops Falling is very much an ensemble play. Jalen Berry, Kate Gallagher, Macey Lawson, Alana Lymn, Jarrod Matulick, Zoe Russel-Von Bujdoss, Lucas Tennant and Liam Warmeant all deliberately and carefully support each other as they create expressive characters and relationships backwards and forwards through time and place. No one outshines another. Indeed, the success of the show depends on this. They move purposefully around the set with choreographed precision. It is cold and clinical, and poetic at the same time. It all facilitates the passage of time, and to the unfortunate sense that the two families are doomed to repeat their mistakes
Co-directors Veronica Rogers and Jarrad Prest have collaborated well with their production team and actors to create an entertaining and emotional piece of theatre.
