The Stage

The Maddening Rain

Published Thursday 2 September 2010 at 14:20 by Jonathan Lovett

A static one-hander needs great writing.

Unfortunately, this maddening play never lets rip until the final quarter and by then most of the audience has given up on the sole character.

An unnamed 20-something from Leicester details his rise from bowling attendant to ruthless city boy before detonating in regret at what he’s left behind.

Along the way we gain little insight into the esoteric world of trading, while his interior life seems curiously blank to create an anodyne character study and only mildly diverts the plot - where we don’t particularly care what happens to our boy.

In its second production, Darbourne Luff desperately needs some of the invention of last year’s Thyestes, but director Matthew Dunster (director of Love the Sinner earlier this year at the National) perversely keeps his actor centre-stage, hands in pockets virtually throughout whilst behind him sits an interesting looking, sadly unused set suggesting busy office life.

Part of the problem stems from the fact the protagonist is difficult to warm to. Felix Scott tries hard with such thin material but he never seems to become the character and we are always aware he is playing a part. A fine mimic - his posh boy portraits provide some much needed humour - it would have perhaps worked better if the tale was narrated from different viewpoints, to vary the one note tone and allow other characters the chance to comment on the nebulous narrator.

A play about high finance in a time of recession misses the zeitgeist by a good few months and leaves as much lasting impression as tears in the rain.

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