Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Building blocks

Three Days of Rain<br /> Apollo This Isn’t Romance<br /> Soho

issue 28 February 2009

Three Days of Rain
Apollo

This Isn’t Romance
Soho

Richly sophisticated and over-contrived. This is the glory and the failing of Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain. But, first, hats off to a writer who expects his audience to be smart, clued-in and intellectually curious. Dimwits, stay in the bar, we’ll join you later. The play opens in a disused office space in 1995 where three young adults who grew up together are tussling over their dead father’s will. Dad ran a hugely successful architectural practice and the plot turns on the ownership of an award-winning, postmodern house, built in the early Sixties, whose innovative design launched the careers of its creators but whose true authorship is in doubt. Believe me, weaving these intractable themes into a play is extremely tricky. Making them plausible, interesting and narratively dynamic is trickier still.

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