“When The Rain Stops Falling” is the new production at A Public Fit Theatre Companyof Las Vegas.
The play by Australian Andrew Bovell is full of secrets and mysteries, which are gradually revealed.
KNPR talks with the directors of the production, Ann-Marie Pareth and Joe Kucan.
How does this play fit with your mission? Why did you choose this?
Anne-Marie Pareth: A lot of times I think, especially in this modern age, people like to do shows that are filled with spectacle, that are very slick and we live in an age where there is a lot of technology and there is a lot of disconnect.
Joe Kucan: And we live in a city where that has become a foundation for art in the town. We connect our entertainment and our perception of what the state of the art is by literally the state of the art in technology and spectacle on stage.
Pareth: I really feel that this is a play about love. There’s a lot of love stories. There’s family love. That is what Joe and I tried to focus in on is that connection between all of these families throughout the generations.
This play is noted for its complexity. How do you think the complexity works for the play?
Pareth: I like to pick plays that have a lot of mystery to them so they’re not easy to figure out because I think audiences are intelligent. I think that it’s super in the way that the plot is developed, but in order for the play to effectively land, you have to have the proper staging in order to highlight the older version and the younger version of these characters.
Kucan: Part of [the playwright’s] structuring of the play is near genius. The play jumps back and forth in time. So that we start in 2039 and we immediately jump back to 1958. We start in Australia and jump to London. Part of that structure, what it really forces an audience to do – they literally have no choice but to sit forward a little bit more and really pay attention to who is who. It is a relatively slow burn.
The way he structured the show really pushes the audience to pay very close attention and decide what the questions are they need answered in order to move their own understanding of the story forward. That’s an important point because there are mysteries they could just let go and ignore, but there are very clear indications in the script that this is an important mystery. This is an important question – pay attention to this because it’s going to be important later.
And then by the end of the show, when everything clicks into place, we’ve run our first weekend now and almost uniformly have had gasps in the crowd when they realize what these specific moments have meant early on.
What was the casts’ reaction to the play the first time it was read through?
Kucan: They took a secret vote afterwards and asked that we do instead “Odd Couple.”
This is the first play of the season. So what is next and is there a theme for the season?
Pareth: The next play is “Beauty Queen of Leenane” by Martin McDonah and that’s an Irish play and there is a lot of menace to that particular play. It’s about a mother-daughter relationship.
Kucan: We didn’t pick a uniform theme. On paper, we have a three-show season but in practicality we have a seven-show season, because what else Public Fit is committed to is our four-show stage reading series that we do in conjunction with the Las Vegas Library District.
Scenes from the play “When The Rain Stops Falling” by Andrew Bovell
A Roadhouse on the Coorong, 1988 – Gabriel Law sees the younger Gabrielle York at the window.
Gabriel Law played by Mike Rasmussen
Gabrielle York played by Jamie Carvelli-Pikrone
Kucan: The music that you heard there is live. Mike plays the guitar. More than just recording that music for that scene and playing it live, he actually composed and recorded the music for the whole show.
As you’re watching the show, and the music comes in through the speakers, and you hear this acoustic guitar, it sets a certain tone and there is this scene and you realize Michael’s character “Gabriel” is the fount for all that music. And the connection that that makes in the audience ties a lot of things together in the play.
A Beach on the Coorong, 1988
Gabriel Law played by Mike Rasmussen
Gabrielle York played by Jamie Carvelli-Pikrone
Guitar, Mike Rasmussen
Ann-Marie Pareth, artistic director and co-founder of "A Public Fit Theatre Company" - Las Vegas. Joe Kucan, co-founder of "A Public Fit Theatre Company" - Las Vegas"; Jamie Carvelli-Pikrone, actor; Mike Rasmussen, actor
