When the Rain Stops Falling

by Andrew Bovell

Alice Springs in the year 2039. A fish falls from the sky and lands at the feet of Gabriel York. And it still smells of the sea. It's been raining for days and Gabriel knows something is wrong.

Fifty years earlier his grandfather, Henry Law, predicts that fish will fall from the sky heralding a great flood which will end life on earth as we know it.

In an intricate, multi-layered story that spans four generations and two continents, When the Rain Stops Falling explores patterns of betrayal, abandonment, destruction, forgiveness and love. This powerful drama unfolds with humanity, surprising humour and hope, as the past plays out into the future.

Winner 2008 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards
Winner 2008 QLD Premier's Literary Awards

Introductions from Chris Drummond and Murray Bramwell.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama

57 pages, Paperback

First published April 24, 2009

Reviews

[Marchpane · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the Rain Stops Falling is a play that I think relies heavily on staging and choreography for its dramatic heft. On the page it is fine, just a little flattened. Without costuming to evoke the various time periods, actors’ line delivery to inject humour and pathos to the script, it can be a touch colourless. The characters are not well delineated in the text and the plot seems truncated, like a CliffsNotes version of a multi-generational saga.

Where the play really shines is in the technicality of its stage directions—overlapping scene transitions that allow settings decades apart to bleed together; a wordless opening sequence that involves the whole cast in a reverting canon of repeated movement. This, together with several characters sharing the same name, adds pattern and rhythm that amplifies the otherwise minimal plot and characterisations. As a theatre experience, I’m sure this piece could be truly impressive when done well. A great example of how stagecraft and acting can elevate a fairly thin underlying story.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gut wrenchingly tragic and strangely beautiful play that spans many generations of repetition until the beginning of the end of the world. Highly recommended.

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously this would be much better if watched- and performed by a company like frantic assembly. But the language is beautiful. The repetition makes it feel so tragic and fated and honest. Bc aren’t we all just echoes of the experiences had by our ancestors? How many of these characters chose their fate, and how many were victim to it? A theme as old as time, but reading that from these characters’ perspective evoked both loneliness and connectivity

[Lauren Cleary · Rating 3 out of 5]

read it for drama and didn't hate it as much as I assumed I would

the repeated segments are extremely cool but also means that I can't mess with the cleaning/painting montage which I mildly hate

also realised that technically I've been playing Beth somewhat wrong because apparently she throws wine in his face before she starts speaking
but also it's not a super well-known play so hopefully the examiners won't know and I'll get away with it

absolutely hated all of the characters BUT the nice thing is that you really don't have to like them to enjoy the plot (which was really compelling)

given my predisposition to despise any post-Shakespearean play, I was pleasantly surprised

[nadia | notabookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was very very painful and very very strong

[Lauren Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not really a "theater person." I was never intrigued by the art form, but over the years have somehow made a number of friendships with people that are. Some of them even started a theater company (Adapt Theater Company) and have done five full productions.
So for this year's Read Harder challenge, I committed to reading a few. This is the third one I've read this year, and I think I'm finally starting to understand the type of plays I like.

Magical, time looping, destiny-tied, multi-generational, epic, emotional, world crumbling, tragic, fish falling from the sky types of plays. This play is STUNNING.

[Jef · Rating 4 out of 5]

less accessible than speaking in tongues, this is still pretty epic stuff. wonderfully crafted. i can't wait to see this onstage.

[Maahee · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the more intriguing texts I've had to read for English so far, I can't lie. I'm kind of excited! It seems like there's a lot to unpack

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first professional play I ever saw and it changed my life, so I may be biased when I say that this is a beautiful piece of work. Does it use the incredibly cliched story beats that are used in so many plays to get a cheap shock? Absolutely! Does that make me like it less? No.
Powerful story-telling. Will affect you, probably.

[Sophie Bloor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both structurally and linguistically fantastic. Ouchies. Heart hurts. “I have let people go all my life, I have run away from love. I don’t know what all these things mean, I can only tell you that somewhere at the end of this mess is where you belong.”

[Srishti Miglani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought provoking. Insightful. Layered with generational trauma.

Not as easy to read on paper but I’m sure would have reflected better as a play on stage especially due to overlaps in time periods and beginnings that are endings of beginnings.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

A multi-generational play that flows over time and space and packs a real punch. It reads well on the page and I'd love to see it performed. The transitions look like they'd be fantastic.

[Jorge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como dice Julián Fuentes Reta, el que dirigió esta obra en el Español, la obra plantea la pregunta: ¿Queremos cambiar, o no?

Esta obra es un colofón generacional, una marea de recuerdos, vivencias, repeticiones de patrones heredados, un sufrimiento heredado, herencia de la herencia. Esta obra trata de sanar, de buscar el punto en el que se hizo la mella, la llaga, de curar las heridas que se han ido transmitiendo.

A nivel literario, es un sinfín de repeticiones retóricas, en el que la forma baila con el contenido, cambiando ambas lo suficiente, por lo alto y por lo bajo, para formar una trama elocuente y sólida.

[Megan Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my absolute favorite plays and I really hope I can work on a production of it some day. It's hauntingly beautiful, sad, hopeful. I loved Bovell's "Speaking in Tongues," but love this one even more. It's more complex but feels incredibly satisfying once the pieces come together, and I love the strange ways he ties together the end of the world, the Australian landscape, and the mysteries of one's past.

[Amos McCandless · Rating 5 out of 5]

“When the Rain Stops Falling” is a beautifully written play. It deals with the inter and intra-personal struggles passed down within a family, generation by generation. Rather than provide a chronological timeline, it interweaves scenes from each generation, which further emphasizes how traits are passed on. This is a deeply loving play with opportunities for impressive stage pictures, moment work, and choreography.

One line that stands out to me: “You reach a certain moment in your life when you realize that you have nothing to say to your parents...It wasn’t until years later that I realized that having nothing to say is just another way of having so much to say that you dare not begin.”

I have felt this way several times in my life, especially growing up in my parents house. I let conflicts and questions recede into the background without addressing them and building more than a surface level connection with people in my life. This line spoke to me because at this moment in my life (28 years old) I realize I need to begin this process of speaking. This process of being myself.

I highly recommend this play, and hope to see it performed.

[Irreverent · Rating 2 out of 5]

I must have missed something, because apart from the originality of the scene changes, I found the text pretentiously aiming at some depth that the banality of the dialogues didn't deliver. You can always find metaphors everywhere (many playwrights rely on audience's vivid imagination to conceil their shortcomings), but to press on reliable buttons (and overused if not approached with an original angle) like loss, child abuse and the feeling of being uprooted, just to achieve a sense of grandiose drama to which everybody can empathize, makes me find it rather mannered.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

“You reach a moment in your life when you realize you have nothing to say to your parents. I reached that moment with my own mother when I was seventeen years old. It wasn’t until years later that I realized that having nothing to say is just another way of having so much to say that you dare not begin.”

Andrew Bovell once again comes in to destroy my heart. Every aspect of this play is beautifully woven together to build into the next scene. Every idea that was introduced comes back up later to deliver another gut punch. This one is definitely going to sit with me for a long time.

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 2008 Play is set in 2039, and we edge closer to a climate catastrophe which this play predicts. Set in Australia's Northern Territory and York, England, over four generations of a family, 'Rain Stops Falling' follows human drama and betrayal, alongside governmental failure to control the atmospheric carbon problem. This play is ripe for updating and performing again. Fish fall from the sky, it's Biblical in proportion.

[keevaisreading · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was beautifully written, where the foreshadowing and twists were revealed at just the right times, the scenes seamlessly transitioning, then taking you to exactly where you left. When the same characters interact in between their times created beautiful imagery, I hope to see it performed one day. Amazing symbolism and makes the reader realise how their actions may affect other people, even far into the future.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the Rain Stops Falling (play) – A. Bovell (Australia) on my Kindle since 2017!
This play won awards in the 2008 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the 2008 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards and the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.
Great characters, challenging, interesting…complex play.
Reading time: 2 hr 20 min.
Thoughts: beyond impressed…I’m speechless!
…this one is a #MustRead (Kindle/paperback available)

[Isabela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play means more to me than life itself.

I am aware that that is a very intense way to feel about a 60 page play but it is how I feel.

I don't like sharing it with other people because they either never read it or they don't know how to appreciate it as much as I do. Both are heartbreaking to me so I don't share it.

[Berta Borràs · Rating 5 out of 5]

“No va ser fins anys més tard que em vaig adonar que el fet de no tenir res a dir és una altra manera de tenir tant a dir que no saps ni com començar… I llavors, ja era massa tard. Ja se n’havia anat… Tan de bo hagués tingut més coratge. Tan de bo hagués estat més valent.”

-Quan la pluja deixi de caure

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

HENRY.- Tengo un gran anhelo... de ser más de lo que soy.
ELIZABETH.- Pero tú lo eres todo. Para mí, tú lo eres todo. ¿Qué más se puede ser?

Una obra preciosa sobre la búsqueda de la identidad, las raíces y la verdad.

A veces es necesario caminar bajo la lluvia para llegar a ver la luz.

[Jonah Levine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revisited after 4 years and just...wow.

[Pat Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this in the hospital the day after my son was born and I’m extremely exhausted and may forget every word of it by tomorrow but right now it’s one of the best pieces of theatre I’ve read.

[Jonah Dunch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw a production of this play in 2014, and it's lurked in the back of my mind since. I appreciate its intricacy, erudition, and pathos all the more upon reading the script.

[Anka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but confusing. Definitely need to properly WATCH the play to fully understand it.

[Rayna]

Brilliant story. Lots of twists. Kind of confusing first time around

[Shanna Klutts · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting and emotional story about generations of secrets, betrayals, and love within the scope of a family.

[Camilla]

very interesting