This production of Sami Ibrahim’s play soars thanks to excellent performances from the cast
Photo via Phoenix Theatre.
In the world of A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain, it is scientific fact that once a sheep’s wool is sheared and enough accumulates, it rises into the air and becomes a cloud.
Written by British-based Palestinian playwright Sami Ibrahim, A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain is at once abstract and grounded in its exploration of immigration and the dehumanizing bureaucracy that determines who belongs and who doesn’t, and the Phoenix Theatre does a fantastic job in doing such a poetic script justice.
Inspired by Ibrahim’s father’s journey to gain citizenship, A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain follows Elif (played by Divine Mercy Ezeaku) as she tries to obtain citizenship for herself and , — once she becomes pregnant — her daughter, too.
The story is set on the Island, where the King decides who is a citizen of the Capitol. Elif, a non-registered immigrant, lives outside the Capitol, shearing sheep for the Island’s clouds. There are three narrators, two are unnamed (played by Tarn Blakely and Anton Matsigura), and the third is Elif’s daughter, Lily (played by Gabrielle Blake).
Perhaps the best way to describe the tone of the play is “magical realism,” a genre or style of work which presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements. The magical, abstract elements are used to highlight the themes of the story.
In A Sudden Burst of Violent Rain, undocumented immigrants are ‘hired’ unofficially to make clouds. Another backbreaking, under-minimum-wage job depicted in the play is to vacuum up rain/floodwater. But the magical elements do not detract from or replace the real ones; at one point, Lily clarifies that the surreal story her mom told her of her father and birth (that Lily was planted in a flower pot) was highly fictionalized to avoid discussing the uncomfortable reality — that some guy knocked Elif up and left.
The other narrators also interrupt Lily’s narration when she tries to lessen an argument she had with Elif. The play is very much concerned with the stories people tell themselves, and why certain stories, like a King deciding who counts as a citizen and who doesn’t, stick. That concern is reflected in the broad, nation defining stories of the Island, and the personal ones of its citizens, as they struggle to find a place to belong within it.
Also supporting the play’s abstract tone is Ibrahim’s poetic flare when it comes to writing dialogue. It fits a world where wool becomes clouds, and rainwater has to be vacuumed up.
It also helps that the actors manage to grasp this tone. Blakely, Matsigura, and Blake, as they explicitly relate the story to the audience, they help to set the scene with descriptive poetic dialogue, making a raised platform in the middle of the stage feel like an entire world.
Ezeaku also does a fantastic job as Elif. Given she’s the central character — that the entire show hinges upon — Ezeaku does the character justice.
The only small hiccup is that, being a British production, the script has a lot of British sayings, which may be unfamiliar to some audiences, and can sound strange attached to Canadian accents, but it never took me out of the show.
A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain is a truly impactful production. At its heart is the story of a mother trying to do the best for her daughter, no matter the sacrifices she has to make. Everything in this production, the script, the set and the acting highlights this heart, leaving you thinking about it long after the lights go down for the final time.
A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain runs until March 21st. Tickets can be purchased at the Phoenix Theatre’s website.
