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| Angela Goethals & Brian Avers in SCR's 2010 production of Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo. Photo by Scott Brinegar/SCR. |
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| Karl Miller & Mandy Siegfried in SCR's 2011 production of Completeness by Itamar Moses. Photo by Ben Horak. |
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| Jennifer Lyon, Kate Rylie & Blair Sams in SCR's 2010 production of Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR. |
I have gotten into a perverse pattern of not writing about the plays I've seen at SCR that I've enjoyed the most. Last summer, Crimes of the Heart was vibrant and energetic -- first time I'd actually seen it performed from beginning to end, after having been in several different scenes for various acting classes over the years. Then in October 2010, Becky Shaw -- a complex drama about tangles of personal relationships with just a dash of Fatal Attraction. Most recently, last month (April 2011) I got to see Completeness, an amazing play, layered and deeply complex. I loved everything about it. And I didn't write anything about these. I can't really say why, but I wish I had.
Last week, I got to see another really good play at South Coast Rep: Three Days of Rain by Richard Greenberg. This play is a dramatic mystery - In the first act, adult siblings Walker and Nan Janeway are brought together by the death of their famous architect father, Ned Janeway. Walker has found Ned's journal, but the writings in it are as much an enigma to them as their father was. When their father's will reveals that he's left the house to Pip -- his deceased partner Theo's son -- even more questions are raised. The second act takes us back to the 1960's, where the mystery of Ned, Theo, and Lina (Walker and Nan's mother) is revealed.
I was super excited to see the second act, because the same actors play their parents; Kevin Rahm portrays Walker in the first act, and Ned in the second. Susannah Schulman is Nan in Act I and Lina in Act 2. Brendan Hines is Pip, and then his father Theo. All the actors did a wonderful job creating the characters completely differently in the first act and the second.
I loved that, if you're paying attention, stories told in the first act help fill out the action in the second, and vice versa.
I have to admit, I was also super-excited to see Brendan Hines on stage, I've seen him in Lie To Me for the last two years. (I missed the first season...) And hurray for Susannah Schulman! I got to see her (and loved her) in Midsummer Night's Dream earlier this year. Apologies to Kevin Rahm, I don't watch Desperate Housewives, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching him on stage. (I got all attached to Walker & Ned).
Don't miss this play at SCR, I highly recommend it!
Three Days of Rain by Richard Greenberg
May 13, 2011 - June 12, 2011
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