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When The Rain Stops Falling

 

By Andrew Bovell

Directed by Rachel Lenart

19 and 20 October 2022

“Australia would be far enough. You’re not the first Englishman to be sent there in shame”- Elizabeth Law, When the Rain Stops Falling

We open in 2039, and a fish falls out of the sky in the middle of the desert at the feet of Gabriel York. Spanning two contintents, eighty years, and four generations, Australian playwright Andrew Bovell weaves an epic tale which is both biblical in proportion and achingly domestic in its intimacy.

“it vibrates with a deep, mysterious sense of the great Australian landscape to which the characters flee and return, and of the broken relationship with nature that underpins so much of our pain… One of the most powerful plays of the decade” -The Scotsman, 2015

This multiple award-winning stylistic drama has been produced by professional theatres across Australasia and the English speaking world, but this production by Massey University students marks its Palmerston North debut. Our 2022 production will be the last offering for some time, as Manawatū theatre courses move to distance delivery in 2023.

“I have been aching to direct this astonishing play for over a decade. When the student numbers aligned exactly as needed for the cast, I knew the time had finally come! It is extremely poignant to me that this production will be the first time these undergraduate students have managed to stage a full production, finally, in their third year of study, the survivors of the covid degree, while for me, it is likely to be my last in this role. It’s my Massey swan song, and my love letter to our fierce and mighty programme” -Director Rachel Lenart

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Since 2016, the theatre in production course has consistently been recognised in performance, design and ensemble awards locally under Lenart’s direction. Students learn active dramaturgical practice, the craft of design and production as well as performance technique. They take on both a performance and design or production role in realising the work- in a condensed process in line with professional industry standard.

It’s last production; Vinegar Tom was in 2019, just before everything changed. In 2020, these current students began their first year of study, just as covid hit the world, and Theatre Studies along with everything else, moved predominantly online. These resolute and passionate students persisted; learning process, playwrighting, theory, and nailing the forgotten art of the radio play. There was no possibility of staging a full scale production with a professional director, until now, in their final undergraduate semester. From next year, for the foreseeable future, Theatre courses will no longer be offered internally on the Manawatū campus, marking the end of an era for the program and the region.

“When the Rain Stops Falling is my thank you to this tenacious group. These incredible Rangatahi who have stuck with us loyally, worked with immense integrity in extreme circumstances and excelled in spite of it all. They deserve to be the ones to make this. It’s a huge undertaking, a wild theatrical challenge, and they are rising to it remarkably”- RL

When the Rain Stops Falling is a story of intergenerational trauma, of secrets, of the search for knowing, and of the end of the world. And still, it is hopeful, offering an opportunity to finally break the patterns we inherit and silence the ghosts who haunt us. Perhaps an end, certainly a beginning. It’s bleak, its beautiful, it’s witty, it’s wise, it is a triumph of theatrical style and form. It is unmissable.

“My own past escapes me… The past is a mystery. And yet, perhaps it will be easier to explain than the fish”- Gabriel York, When the Rain Stops Falling

Two Shows Only

19-20 October, 7pm, Sir Geoffrey Peren Auditorium, Massey University

Koha Entry, No bookings required

Content warning:

Contains references and images of Suicide, child abuse, sexual offenses

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