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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 2011)
theater www.cousinjackspasty.com BY RICK LEVIN Jay Hash (left), Sydney Behrends and James Lee in Three Days of Rain FROZEN PASTY TO GO at Saturday Farmer’s Market 8th & Oak • 9am-4pm HOT PASTY & A PINT at Ninkasi Tasting Room 541-686-3211 1333 W. 2nd Alley CHECK THE FREEZER AISLE AT YOUR LOCAL NATURAL FOOD STORE LORD LEEBRICK THEATRE COMPANY Generation Gap Three Days of Rain will make you call your parents N one of us like to imagine our parents having sex. In fact, none of us spend that much time imagining our parents at all — at least not as living, breathing, thinking individuals with a rich and intricate past. The reasons for this are emotionally deep and psychologically complex: Mom and Dad have always been larger than existence, immense fi gures who gave us life, who provided for and punished us, loved or neglected us, took us in or turned us away. They are more myth than reality. When we try to picture our parents with ordinary daily lives like our own — infi nitely detailed, full of trial and error, joy, ugliness, love, betrayal, boredom, struggle, sex — it’s diffi cult to think beyond generalities (calling them parental units, for example), especially when we wonder what they might have been like before we came along. Three Days of Rain, a play by Richard Greenberg currently in production at Very Little Theatre, takes this mystery of the generations and pushes it to its ultimate dramatic limits. The results are hilarious and disturbing and always surprising. The story opens in 1995, in the Manhattan apartment held in perpetuity by famous architect Ned Janeway, who has just died. Three adults arriving in town to attend the funeral converge on the apartment: Ned’s son Walker (Jay Hash), a hyperactive, hyper- intelligent wastrel; his sister Nan (Sydney Behrends), the responsible one; and the hunky TV actor Pip (James Lee), son of Ned Janeway’s partner Theo. Through a series of conversations, crises and revelations, these three — while reliving the turmoil of their own youth — are forced to recreate something they can only guess at: What were their parents really like, and what happened among them? The second act stays in place but leaps back in time, to 1960, where Ned (Hash) and Theo (Lee) use the stark apartment as a base for their new architecture fi rm. Enter Lina (Behrends), Theo’s girlfriend, a whipsmart Southerner right out of Tennessee Williams who lusts to “be known” among New York’s intelligentsia. This is an emotional triangle if there ever was one. Complications of a sexual and professional and spiritual nature ensue, scrambling everything we thought we knew and revealing how completely (and signifi cantly) wrong were the conclusions drawn by their children in the fi rst act. Though it takes a bit of dancing and darting around to fi nd its way, Three Days of Rain in the end proves to be one of those rare treasures: a small, intimate play that tackles some pretty profound ideas without once losing the subtle rhythms and stumbling uncertainties of family life. Director Sarah Etherton reveals a fi ne understanding of the material; her pacing is admirably unhurried, yet she maintains all the suspense and intensity of a murder mystery. And the three actors, each of whom takes on dual roles, are delightful to watch — they create a believable sibling dynamic that crackles with tension and desire. ew Shakespeare’s Romance Adapted & Directed by John Schmor Opens May 6 runs through May 20 This summer for kids 7 & up Fun & Excitement... Cam p star s Theatre Summer Camps t Registering now! June TICKETS 54 541-465-1506 lordleebrick.com lo 20 Three Days of Rain plays through May 1 at The Very Little Theatre; $10, tickets at www.thevlt.com or 344-7751. WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM EUGENE WEEKLY APRIL 28, 2011 33
