The challenges of a farm family surviving during the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression still resonate 80 years later in the classic play “The Rainmaker,” brought to life beautifully on stage in Santa Monica by Henry Jaglom and the Rainbow Theater Company in association with Edgemar Center for the Arts.
The play focuses on the lone daughter of the Curry family, Lizzie, portrayed by Tanna Frederick, who lives on the family farm with her two brothers and father. While she tends to their needs, cooking and cleaning, there’s an emptiness in her own life and she dreams of having her own family, even as she subjected to their pressures of marrying her off.
A visit to her cousins that became a failed attempt to find a prospective mate have left her even more frustrated, as does the lack of romantic attention from a handsome deputy sheriff–as the family deals with withering and persistent drought threatens their livelihood and well-being.
Suddenly, a charismatic stranger named Starbuck (played by Robert Standley) enters their lives, claiming that he can conjure up rain that will alleviate their difficulties.
His presence proves divisive among the family members when he demands the then princely sum of $100 to make it happen. What ensues is love, desire and even magic in the stark farmhouse that becomes the epicenter for all of those emotions.
The two-act drama makes for riveting viewing, with surprising twists and shifting alliances amongst the characters. One theme that grips the heartstrings is a father’s love for his only daughter, portraying an ideal that often proves rare in real life, and how it plays out in the confines of an era in which women’s roles were rigidly proscribed.
The production is ably directed by Jack Heller and produced by Alexandra Guarnieri.
The play was written by N. Richard Nash and has been translated into 40 languages, since it mirrored on Broadway in 1954. It was also the basis of a successful 1956 film that starred Katharine Hepburn as Lizzie and Burt Lancaster as Starbuck.
The Rainmaker runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM, Sunday at 5 PM. at Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2437 Main St., Santa Monica, 310. 392-7327. Tickets: $34.50
http://www.edgemarcenter.org/rainmaker
