Be Rain for Me

Synopsis

Be Rain For Me follows lifelong friends Leah and Willow as they strive to find their place in the world. Stuck working in a fish factory in deepest Salford with only Greasy Gary for company, they embark on an emotional and touching journey of self discovery. While Leah perfects her 'Julia Roberts smile', a bereavement in Willow’s family sees her estranged parents thrust back into her life in ways she could never have expected... As her father's deeply buried deceit surfaces and a colossal truth unravels, Willow learns that her perception of the past is almost as fragile as her mother's existence. Be Rain For Me encapsulates all that is beautiful between true friends whilst boldly challenging preconceptions of domestic abuse.

Our Review:

22 January 2011

After the death of the grandmother by whom she was raised Willow (Susi Wrenshaw who also wrote the play) finds disturbing evidence of the reasons why she was relinquished by her birth parents.

Wrenshaw has an absolute gift for dialogue and the exchanges between Willow and her friend Leah (a sparking performance from Amy Spencer) are crammed with convincing and amusing incidental detail. Russell Kennedy, as dominating father Ray, enjoys the psychological menace in his speeches.

Director Matthew Ganley takes a naturalistic approach to bring the various elements together. The brevity of the play does not, however, allow for the motivations of the parents to be explored in the depth required for the plot to be wholly credible.

The effort of the cast to compensate exaggerates some of the scenes between the parents. A more abstract directorial style- treating each scene as a ‘ snapshot’ rather than part of a continuous link- might have worked bu...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

No reviews yet

Click here to add your review