Waga Wagga Civic Theatre, NSW Australia (2007)
Summer Rain Theater Production Playwriter: Nick Enright Director: Michael Smalley Scenographer: Dalia Farah
Plot
It’s Christmas Eve, 1945. Harold Slocum, proprietor of Slocum’s Travelling Family Tent Show, has a love of the horses, an intimate relationship with bookies and no money to pay his troupe. After the performers walk out, the Slocum family finds itself in the drought-blighted NSW outback town of Turnaround Creek. Deciding to put on a show, they muster the enthusiasm of the townsfolk, despite the hostility shown by local publican Barry Doyle, who remembers the last time Harold was in town, 16 years previously. Then the drought breaks and the Slocums are stranded. Over nine days of rain, dormant memories of an illicit affair resurface and emotions run high, new life is breathed into the town, love blossoms and a feeling of rejuvenation and optimism for the future after the long years of war, beings to take hold. Nick Enright and Terence Clarke’s charming musical celebrates the vaudeville troupes which travelled outback Australia in the 1930s and 40s and the tight-knit rural communities they entertained. Originally written for National Institute of Dramatic Arts’ (NIDA) graduating class of 1983, Summer Rain received it professional premiere in 1989 at Sydney Theatre Company. It features the songs Once in a Blue Moon, You Might Miss The Mongrel, The Word on the Wind, and Summer Rain. Source: https://artsreview.com.au/summer-rain/
