theater
www.cousinjackspasty.com
BY RICK LEVIN
Jay Hash (left), Sydney Behrends and
James Lee in Three Days of Rain
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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
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Three Days of Rain plays through May 1 at The Very Little
Theatre; $10, tickets at www.thevlt.com or 344-7751.
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EUGENE WEEKLY APRIL 28, 2011 33