When the Rain Stops Falling

written by Andrew Bovell

directed by Ares Harper

Dramaturg

When the Rain Stops Falling spans several continents and decades, but a family is at its center. The play starts with a father having to prepare for his estranged son's arrival. He says, “I know what he wants. He wants what all young men want from their fathers. He wants to know who he is. Where he comes from. Where he belongs. And for the life of me, I don’t know what to tell him.” In this simple expression, we set the groundwork for a grand epic. The Present, Past, and Future are intertwined, creating a seemingly unbreakable cycle that reflects the climate crisis that persists throughout the play.

As the Dramaturg, my first mission was to set our scene. The “Welcome Packet” features geographic profiles of the numerous settings of the play: Alice Springs, London, the Coorong, etc. The climate and topography hold significant semiotic power. The brunt of my work, however, was working with the director and cast to construct psychological profiles of the characters as evidenced by their behavior and the events that happened to them through the play's action. To supplement these discoveries, I created the “Intergenerational Trauma and Grief” packet to provide examples of how trauma functions in our minds and bodies to serve as inspiration.