[(Three Days of Rain)] [Author: Richard Greenberg] published on

by Richard Greenberg

A year after he disappeared on the day of his father's funeral, Walker Janeway returns to New York. He takes up temporary residence in the unused space where thirty-five years earlier, his father Ned, and Ned's late partner Theo, both architects, lived and designed the great house that would make them famous. Sleepless and emotionally jangled, Walker scours the old empty space for clues, evidences or keys to the tortured family history. Discovering his father's journal hidden under the bed, he finds it as unforthcoming as his nearly silent father had been. Walker is joined by his sister, Nan, and their friend from childhood, Pip, Theo's son, to hear the reading of Ned's will. It is there that Walker forces the confrontation that the others need. After an evening of harrowing and sometimes comically inadvertent revelations, Walker disappears once more. This time he returns later that evening with a surprising, but to him, definitive solution to the family puzzle. We travel back to 1960, when Ned's journal begins. We meet the parents at the same age their children are in Act Ned, who seems very different from the cold monster the children conjured; the charismatic and putative genius, Theo; and Lena, Walker and Nan's mother, the delightful, troubled "Southern woman who admits to thirty." In the guise of a love story, we are offered all the information needed to devise an alternative reading of the sad, unexpectedly romantic family story."

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Fiction

Paperback

First published March 1, 1997

About the author

Richard Greenberg was an American playwright and television writer known for his subversively humorous depictions of middle-class American life. He had more than 25 plays premiere on Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway in New York City and eight at the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, California, including The Violet Hour, Everett Beekin, and Hurrah at Last. Greenberg is perhaps best known for his 2002 play Take Me Out.

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know I read this back when it first appeared in 1997 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer, and then again in 2006 when it was done on Broadway with the starry cast of Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper (both making their Bway debuts) and Paul Rudd ... and remembered it as being quite wonderful. I don't know if it just hasn't aged well, or there wasn't much there to begin with, but now it reads rather flatly, and although it retains some of its initial innovation (the three actors play characters in something of a l0ve triangle in 1995 in the first act, and then the parents of those characters in 1960 in the second), it doesn't seem quite so special. A few clever and funny lines can't hide the fact that it's all rather mundane and predictable.

[Amir · Rating 4 out of 5]

جان‌مایه‌ «سه روز باران» را می‌باید نه در دیالوگ‌های آن، که در فضای لابه‌لای سطرها، در سه‌نقطه‌هایی که از پی جمله‌های مقطع می‌آیند جستجو کرد. فاصله‌ها و فضاهایی که در اجرا تبدیل به مکث‌ها و سکوت‌های بازیگران می‌شوند. شخصیت‌های نمایشنامه مدام میان حرف همدیگر می‌پرند و کلام هم را نامفهوم می‌کنند، حرف زدن‌هاشان سکته‌دار است و هیچ‌کدام نمی‌توانند راحت و شفاف حرف خود را بزنند. نمایشنامه اصراری ندارد که به مخاطبش اطلاعات کاملی درباره شخصیت‌ها بدهد؛ تصویرهایی مجرد از برهه‌های مختلف زندگی شخصیت‌ها و روابط‌شان پیش چشم مخاطب می‌گذارد، بقیه را خود مخاطب باید از لابه‌لای مکث‌ها و ناگفته‌های آن‌ها بیابد و بسازد...

ادامه:
http://70.86.34.212/vdchiqnz623nivd.t...

[Sofi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would've rated this higher if there hadn't been parts in the first act where I lost interest in what the characters were saying. There was a lot of overlapping and change of topic in the dialogue so I felt like I wasn't fully understanding what was going on sometimes. I did enjoy the second act a lot more than the first act. I liked seeing the connections that were made within the timelines and the parallels between the three characters from the first act and the three from the second act. It seems like this play would benefit from having actors make certain choices to make everything flow better.

[Maria Carpinelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doing a scene from this for my acting class and I really enjoyed!!

[Georgia Sampson · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Everything is better before you start”

Woof.

[niamh elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for scenes and it was great! lots offered up but i wish it was all fully explored

[Briana · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a nice, cute little play. It just didn’t really stick out to me. I particularly really liked Walker’s character, for example. Like, I would like to play him one day. The play as a whole, however, was.. alright. The description and plot was what drew me in, and I honestly went in with high expectations - which was probably my fault. I thought the plot had a lot of potential. Thought some cool stuff would go down - but it was just another cliche love story of “girlfriend who falls out of love with boyfriend who she’s having trouble with and instead falls in love with the shy guy”. Again, it was cute, it was sweet, but in my opinion, wasted potential. I understand the story was centered on love. I just think the plot could’ve done so much more than that, especially since it’s a two act play. But oh well. Also, the use of “-“ alone nearly gave me a headache. Every other line - looked like that. It was just this - over and over again. That was just a nitpick for me, to be honest. Overall, cute. Probably wouldn’t read again. And if I ever did, it would be for Walker.

[Martin Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three Days of Rain is a mystery play. What makes it so intriguing and, finally, so moving, is the fact that the mystery at its core is one that is common to everyone and one that, I imagine, almost all of us try to solve when we are grown up. For this beautifully written play by Richard Greenberg is about a brother and sister trying to understand who their parents really were. And even as they play out lives riddled with the same mistakes that their mother and father made, even as they piece together facts and memories and hammer out conjectures, they are never able to discover the truth. Three Days of Rain is a fine, fine play. Inhabited by six people who are never really able to fully express their feelings to one another, it cannot help but feel detached, even remote. But it is also immensely moving, and it's smart too, and very funny.

[Tiffany Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

The design of this show is great to behold: the three characters in the first act are the children of the three characters in the second act, played by the same actors. I loved the slow unfolding of the tale: the bits of discovery from the children after the parents have died and then in the second half the full truth of it from 30+ years before. The problem is how little results from the slow boil. There is some good meat on the bone for the actors to play with, though - especially for the 2 males. 3 1/2-ish stars

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the playwright, but was underwhelmed with the plot. Interesting characters, but it didn’t add up to much.
Years ago they had a successful run on Broadway by stunt casting Julia Roberts in her debut. Of course if I knew that Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper was her co- stars, I “might” have bought a ticket.
It was a quick read, but not worth a reread.

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Act 2 is much better than Act 1, in my opinion. I think I see what Greenberg is trying to do, setting up the different triangles in the acts, but I just find hopeless neurotics very uninteresting. Maybe that says more about me than about the play.

[BooksRgood · Rating 4 out of 5]

a brother and sister and their freind look back at their parents' decisions and the repercussions they had...

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bit dull

[Jordan Neff · Rating 3 out of 5]

**3.5 I hate when women are written like THAT idk

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just not super memorable idk

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I could read a play and be able to immediately understand its intricacies the first time.

[Hannah Kaufmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for class; playing Nan in a scene but I love Ned and Lina’s story the most. I should read more plays!

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the things that I enjoy about reading plays is seeing the original cast list. Three Days of Rain is unique is that the entire cast has gone on to be well known and respected as both stage and screen actors. That audiences had a chance to see Patricia Clarkson, Bradley Whitford, and John Slattery share a stage – I’ll admit it, I’m jealous.

Three Days of Rain takes place, in Act I, in the 1990s, when two siblings and a friend are off to hear the formers’ late father’s will. Act II takes place in the 1960s, featuring the siblings’ parents and the friend’s father. I knew little about the play before I read it, and I’m glad I went in mostly ignorant. This is a play about history and how we interpret the past, how events that seem clear when they occur can, depending on the evidence left behind and subsequent events, have a different interpretation in the future. Recommended.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I confess that I went to see this playing at London's Apollo Theatre because I was curious to see how James McAvoy (of Atonement and Last King of Scotland fame) and Nigel Harman (of Eastenders fame) would come off on stage after being on-screen. I fell in love with them on stage and would definitely watch them again if only to hear Greenberg's words being delivered so perfectly again. I had to buy the book and fall in love with this play all over again! One of my favourite lines when Ned is explaining to Lina why Theo and he, as architects, haven't yet started working on a commissioned house:

Lina: But then you'll have this house and people will see it and come to you.

Ned: I-if we have it; we're.... waiting on Theo who's.... waiting on God who's...blocked.

If you love plays - see it, read it, feel it, love it!

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice play, well crafted, with well drawn characters and a decent story.
So why doesn't it stick in my mind?

I think part of this is the fact that it is so much like so many other plays I've read that kind of falls into the pack. True: it goes into the idea of how the acts of the parent can haunt his/her children, but it feels like there is so much more here in this play to be mined out of it, so much opportunity that is left alone.
It is possible that a really strong production of this play can pull out these opportunities and make them palpable, but as it stands it feels like nothing new is really being said.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow was this a great play! Too bad I wasn't into the NYC area in 2006 for the revival, but I'll definitely keep a look out for productions of this play in the future.

I'm curious to read more by Greenberg, he proved to me in a relatively short play with simple dialogue and few characters that he's a great playwright!

[Alyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

With only 6 characters and 3 actors, this is a wonderful play for actor exploration. It tells the story of the child's adult view of their parents and then we see what the parents were like, before kids and life happened.

[Nicolas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really loved some of the dialogue in this, particularly Pip's rants. Still, something about this just didn't work for me. It was jarring to jump back to the parents, then never return to the present. I found it to be a little snobbish.

[Denali · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this was a neat idea. I thought both Walker & Lina were overwritten and effectively sucked the air out of the play. Could be a different story if I saw it staged.

[Dylan Kawalec · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a very real, down to earth play. It doesn't get any more natural than this. An amazing play if you're seeking a scene to perform for a dramatics class.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to write something like this.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Required reading in school. I didn't enjoy it. I usually avoid the How I Met Your Mother episode with the same premise.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

you've-saved-me-you've-saved-me-you've-saved-me <3

[Vassilena · Rating 5 out of 5]

A play to be shared, one of my favorites

[Cara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the characters. Love the dialogue. Just like being a fly on the wall witnessing normal conversations, my favorite type of theatre!