Murray Bramwell
When the Rain Stops Falling
by Andrew Bovell
in collaboration with Hossein Valamanesh
Brink Productions and State Theatre Company of South Australia
Scott Theatre, Adelaide. February 28.
Tickets $25 – $60. Bookings BASS 131 246
Until 15 March.
Moving Target
by Marius von Mayenburg
Translated by Maja Zade
Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Opera House
Odeon Theatre, Adelaide. February.29
Tickets $25 -$49. Bookings Venue*TIX (08) 8225 8888.
Until March 8.
Two keenly anticipated works have been unveiled for the first time at the Adelaide Festival. In 2004 The Extinction Project began with Brink Productions’ Chris Drummond, distinguished visual artist Hossein Valamanesh, writer Andrew Bovell and a strong interest in Tim Flannery’s book The Future Eaters. The result has morphed into When The Rain Stops Falling, a spellbinding saga of four generations reaching forward to 2039, and Alice Springs which now has tropical rainfall and fish falling from the sky. But the turbulent climate change is only a backdrop to the weather the estranged characters take with them through lives of silent regret, abandonment and emotional incomprehension.
These are Bovell signatures, familiar from Lantana, and even bolder here, where co-incidence is a magical expectation and predestination the road most traveled. Those closest to the characters cannot connect, only random encounters and events bring on revelations. Elegantly designed by Valamanesh in pale tones with screens, simple furniture, and sparing use of video projections by TheimaGen, the production, deftly directed by Chris Drummond, places its focus directly on the excellent performances – in duets mostly, with Bovell’s unerring dialogue gradually disclosing mysteries and misunderstandings. The cast is strong, and Carmel Johnson, Neil Pigot, Yalin Ozucelik and Paul Blackwell are outstanding. We cannot easily predict the changes in the world’s weather but the forecast for Andrew Bovell’s finely observed, splendidly crafted play looks bright indeed.
In their first collaboration outside Berlin, leading director Benedict Andrews and writer Marius von Mayenburg have devised Moving Target for Malthouse Theatre. Using six highly inventive performers and such workaday items as a shabby sofa, two chairs, a table and cloth, a sleeping bag, and a child’s doll, Moving Target . begins with apparently spontaneous, often amusing, games of Coming Ready or Not, the group playfully establish connections and rapport.
The time and place is indeterminate but all the time they are talking of someone who poses a threat to them, about whom they intuit danger, premonitions of harm. They are alert and alarmed, and their suspicions extend to a child and a mysterious green parcel. Will they contact the Orwellian Advice Centre with their suspicions ? How can they notify the Task Force and maintain the safety of their anonymity ? Andrews artfully ratchets up the paranoia while charting the anxieties exhibited in adult social conformity using the analogy of children’s games. Much has been written about the self- defeating consequences of counter-terrorism, but in its provocative theatricality, Moving Target cleverly takes us inside the loop for ourselves.
The Australian
3 March, 2008