Julie Hamberg's Production of "Rain from Heaven" by S.N. Behrman

RAIN FROM HEAVEN

a rarely revived play by S.N. Behrman

Reckless Theatre Company
Theatre Three at 311 W. 43rd St . NYC

DRAMA - with dash . This classic anti-fascist drama was originally produced on Broadway in 1934 by the Theatre Guild. It tells the tale of a complicated love triangle set against the backdrop of European political unrest and an impending World War II. There are a whirlwind of competing ideologies in the form of anti-Semitism, communism, idealism, capitalism, and Nazi-ism. Chock-full of goodies!

VILLAGE VOICE Short List of Voice Choices - "Playwright S.N. Behrman had a special knack for burnishing burning issues into the placid surface of 1930s high comedy. In this rarely revived 1934 specimen of his work, a country-house love triangle is complicated not only by family conflicts but by ideologies, refugees, and anti-Semitism. Reckless Theatre's revival, staged by Julie Hamberg, might demonstrate that Behrman's low-key approach deserves another look."

"Director Julie Hamberg is skilled at keeping the pace engrossing, even though the play is mostly talk. The physical production is quite beautiful, from the elegant pillared drawing room to the 30’s cocktail dresses." Victor Gluck, BACKSTAGE

“…when all the pieces are in place, it can be quite forceful. It’s most effective when the antagonists square off in the oh-so-polite drawing room comedy style.” NEWYORKTODAY.com from the NEW YORK TIMES

S.N. BEHRMAN'S SON, DAVID, who saw the production - "Thank you! For bringing "Rain from Heaven" back into vivid existence, and for doing it so well. ...Thinking about this play, I remembered my father telling me once - it must have been in the 1960s - that of all his plays he considered "Rain from Heaven" the one he was most happy about having written." David Behrman (who found out about the production through The Village Voice!)

“... fascinating and prescient look at how the West confronted the rise of Nazism. One is grateful to the Reckless Theatre for pulling this 1934 work out of the trunk. Julie Hamberg directs in a spirited manner.” Lucy Komisar, AMERICAN REPORTER

“This is a silly and implausible play, a product of its times and its author.” [Couldn’t resist that one! But I couldn't agree less – jh]
Donald Lyons, NEW YORK POST

Feature Article from THE JEWISH WEEK - “Hamberg sees the play as timely in its call to action against tyranny and intolerance. One of her favorite lines in the play is spoken by Lael when she expresses the fact that she and the other characters are “staggering pitifully toward some incalculable abyss.” Behrman was “extraordinarily prescient,” Hamberg points out, in apprehending the enormity of the evil that was to overtake the world.” Ted Merwin, THE JEWISH WEEK

CAST

PRODUCTION TEAM

DONNA JEAN FOGEL*

JON KRUPP*

WENDELL LAURENT*

ANDREA MAULELLA*

NELL MOONEY

BRUCE ROSS

JANE SHEPARD*

RICHARD SWAN*

Lady Lael Wyngate

Hobart Eldridge*

Rand Eldridge

Phoebe Eldridge

Joan Eldridge

Hugo Willens

Madame Jurin

Sascha Barashaev

S.N. BEHRMAN

JULIE HAMBERG

MICHAEL WILHOITE

CHRIS JONES

MOIRA SHAUGHNESSY

CHRISTIEN METHOT

KRISTIN BARBER

RUTIE GROSS

IRINA PANTAEVA

DAVID ARROW

FRANK PISCO

WENDELL LAURENT

Playwright

Director / Assoc. Art. Dir. / Co-Producer

Stage Manager

Scenic Designer

Costume Designer

Lighting Designer

Sound Board Operator

German Language Coach

Russian Language Coach

Voiceover

Reckless Artistic Director / Co-Producer

Reckless Exec Producer / Co-Produce

S.N. BEHRMAN BIOGRAPHY

Behrman, Samuel Nathaniel (playwright): Born June 9, 1893, Worchester, MA, US - Died September 9, 1973, NYC.
S.N. Behrman was a US short-story writer and playwright best known for his popular Broadway plays that commented on contemporary moral issues. Though Behrman came from a middle-class family, he wrote about the wealthy, intellectual sector of society, endowing his characters with eloquence and intelligence. He is distinguished among popular playwrights for introducing volatile and complicated issues into his plays and for refusing to create shallow characters. As a young man, Behrman contributed to newspapers and magazines, including the New Republic, The New Yorker and The New York Times, and studied drama at Harvard. His first play, The Second Man, (1927), was an immediate success. Behrman followed it with a string of successes, including Meteor (1929), Brief Moment (1931), and Biography (1932). In the 1930s, Behrman began to struggle with the incongruity of writing comedy in that grim wartime era. From this conflict came one of the great anti-fascist plays, Rain from Heaven (1934). He also joined forces with playwrights Maxwell Anderson, Elmer Rice, Robert E. Sherwood, and Sidney Howard to create The Playwrights' Company to produce plays of substance on Broadway. He wrote and contributed to numerous films. Behrman was quite prolific. He's been called "America's Noel Coward," of course. I'd love to go on and on, and hope to add a lot more in my Intriguing Stuff section, but alas, that must wait. Meanwhile, go see a Behrman play. It'll be worth it for the sparkling dialogue and the heady fun. The Pearl Theatre in NYC just did a revival of BIOGRAPHY in it's 2007 season. Bravo!

MEMBERS OF RECKLESS THEATRE COMPANY
Each member contributed much to make this first Reckless production such a success. L Donovan . Simon Fill . Donna Jean Fogel . James Georgiades . [me] . Glen E. Heiss . Shawn B. Hirabayashi . Wendell Laurent . Siobhan Mahoney . Andrea Maulella . Frank Pisco . Bruce Ross . George Sheffey . Jane Shepard . Richard Swan . Nikki Walker . BOARD MEMBERS . Gina Barnett . Alfred Goldfield, Esq . Karen Sinotte . John Craven . Vincent M. Scarpinato, MD .
Big big thanks -- Especially our after-closing angel Ms. Sinotte

photos credits:

Chris Jones

Julie Hamberg

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