Three Days of Rain
Donmar Warehouse, London WC2

BACK in March Three Days of Rain put in a brief appearance as part of the
Donmar's American Imports season. It returns for a longer spell in the same
poised production, stylishly directed by Robin Lefevre, and with the same
splendid cast. Colin Firth, Elizabeth McGovern and David Morrissey play a
couple of parts apiece, and out of the six at least two (from Firth and
McGovern) had me throwing my critical umbrella to the wind.

As for the other four: well, they lose out to different degrees in the
grand
scheme of Richard Greenberg's likeable but sometimes surface-deep script.
The first half is set in 1995; the second rewinds to 1960. In the first,
brother and sister Walker and Nan (Firth and McGovern) reunite with
intimate friend of the family Pip (Morrissey) for the reading of their father's
will.

Walker is a neurotic dropout who lays his failings firmly at his parents'
feet. Pip, whom Walker resents for being closer to his father than himself,
is happy with his lot as a second-rate soap actor. Nan - well Nan is little
more than a buffer between the other two.

Fair enough and all perfectly well played, but all really an excuse for
Walker to chance upon his father's journal. "Three days of rain" is the
first entry: its inscrutability incenses him. "When people never talk to
you, you always suppose they are harbouring some enormous secret - but
maybe they have nothing to say," he digs away.

Or maybe they do, but in a different way. In the second half the trio play
their characters' respective parents. Here Firth and Morrissey are
struggling architects Ned and Theo. Theo is theoretically the flamboyant
genius, Ned the practical dogsbody, though again appearances fall short of
the truth. McGovern plays a flirtatious, hard-drinking, self-aware Southern
girl who has an affair with one and then, during that three-day downpour,
the other.

Greenberg, I imagine, wants to show how easily the old folk, trying to make
the best of their own limitations, can be misunderstood by their children,
convinced of their own larger emotional life. Fittingly then, the second
half is much more vivid than the first; this is where Firth and, especially,
McGovern really come into their own, playing off each other with a touching
blend of awkwardness and allure, misgiving and giving. Greenberg's script
throws up its multiple reflections with a pleasingly light touch and a
gentle ironic wit. Hardly ground-breaking, but a welcome revival
nonetheless.
 

NIGEL CLIFF

© Copyright of The Times 1999

So rich and resonant is Three Days of Rain that you suspect it might
originally have been intended as a novel or screenplay. There is no doubt
that Richard Greenberg's compelling family drama would have lent itself to
whichever form he'd set his mind to.

The prosaic title refers to a typical entry in the diary of recently
deceased Ned Janeway, a celebrated American architect. His neurotic
drop-out
son Walker (Colin Firth) is hoping to inherit the family home - a
world-renowned architectural masterpiece designed by Ned and his former
partner, Theo - but it's the emotional legacy he should be worrying about.

Having avoided his father's funeral, Walker has finally turned up in New
York to confront his exasperated sister Nan (Elizabeth McGovern), and
Theo's
son Pip (David Morrissey), an actor in TV soaps and an old flame of Nan's.
The three quarrel, make up, fondly recall the past and bemoan the present.

After the interval, we retreat thirty years to meet the previous
generation - Ned and Theo (played by Firth and Morrissey), and Lina
(McGovern), the quick-witted, hard-drinking lover of both men, who combines
the brittleness of Katherine Hepburn with the vulnerability of Blanche
Dubois. What we learn about those 'three days of rain' makes it clear that
this was some kind of understated metaphor for a time of turmoil in the
lives of Ned and Theo. Slowly, you begin to understand how the sins of the
fathers have been visited on their luckless children.

Greenberg may sometimes appear to indulge his obvious gift for one-liners,
but they are usually consistent with the character speaking them and, as
the
play develops, any early flashiness gives way to solid story-telling and
intelligent exposition.

Robin LeFevre's production is cannily understated, allowing three
exceptionally strong performances to carry the full force of the text.
These
are roles that any actor hungry for a challenge would give his or her eye
teeth for. Firth, Morrissey and McGovern do not disappoint.

Now that the Donmar's boss, Sam Mendes, has emerged as one of the hottest
young directors in the States, perhaps we can expect a film version of
Three
Days of Rain before too long. If so, Mendes would be well advised to retain
this tremendous trio.

Nick Smurthwaite

Date:11 November 1999