When the Rain Stops Falling - Almeida Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
MICHAEL Attenborough will direct the European premiere of Andrew Bovell’s When the Rain Stops Falling at the Almeida Theatre – from May 21 (previews from May 14) to July 4, 2009.
An epic play spanning four generations and two continents, When The Rain Stops Falling moves from the claustrophobia of a 1950’s London flat to the windswept coast of Southern Australia and into the heart of the Australian desert.
Bovell’s play weaves together a series of interconnected stories, as seven people confront the mysteries of their past in order to understand their future, revealing how patterns of betrayal, love and abandonment are passed on, until finally, well into the future, as the desert is inundated with rain, one young man finds the courage to defy the legacy.
When the Rain Stops Falling received its world premiere at the Adelaide Festival of Arts earlier this year and recently won the prestigious Louis Esson Prize for Drama in Australia.
Writer for theatre, film and television, Bovell’s film adaptation of the stage play Lantana won numerous awards, including the London Critics’ Circle Best Screenplay Award. His play Speaking in Tongues, which premiered in Sydney in 1996, was subsequently performed across Australia, in London (Hampstead Theatre), in New York (Roundabout Theatre) and in over 20 countries world-wide.
His other theatre writing includes Shades of Blue, Scenes from a Separation and Distance Lights from Dark Places. Bovell also co-wrote the original screenplay of Strictly Ballroom with Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce.
As Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre Company, Attenborough’s productions include Neil LaBute’s The Mercy Seat, Five Gold Rings, Brighton Rock, The Late Henry Moss, Enemies, There Came A Gypsy Riding, Big White Fog, Awake and Sing! and, most recently, Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming. And later this month, he will direct Neil LaBute’s In a Dark Dark House.
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When the Rain Stops Falling will be designed by Miriam Buether, with lighting by Colin Grenfell, music by Stephen Warbeck, sound by Paul Arditti and movement by Imogen Knight. Casting will be announced shortly.
Tickets: £6 to £29.50, concessions available.