Richard Greenberg’s “Three Days of Rain” is an even more brilliant play than remembered. But that’s the thing about a Greenberg play; one sits back, relaxes, lets the quirkiness of it roll the senses and says to oneself, “Ah, this is my favorite one.”
Currently, “Three Days of Rain” is seen in an excellent production at the intimate Compass Theatre (formerly 6th at Penn), where one witnesses the debut of Compass Theatre Company as well as the best work done to date by a triumvirate of San Diego actors. Don’t let this one get away, theater fans.
Compass’ inaugural production augurs well for the new kid on the block and seems to demonstrate the taste of its artistic director, Matt Thompson, who evidently hired director Rosina Reynolds and then said, “Let her rip.” Reynolds stage s the unraveling of mystery, a deeply satisfying and multilayered work, with savory intensity.
The play is set in a small downtown Manhattan apartment, Act I in 1995 and Act II in 1960. There are three characters in each act, in the first, offspring and in the second, parents, partners and lovers.
The pace is relentless as the rapt audience learns how wrong adult children can be about their parents’ youthful relationships and motivations.
Act I concerns what the midlife children believe about Ned (Sean Cox) and Theo (Jason Heil), who lived together in this apartment as architectural school graduates in the throes of creating their first commission, a home for Ned’s parents. The architectural design became Janeway House, recognized immediately as a work of genius, one of the foremost architectural achievements of the century. The young architects were catapulted to fame and international monetary and artistic success.
At the top of the play, just prior to going to the attorney’s office, Ned’s son Walker (Cox) and daughter Nan (Christy Yael), who expect to inherit Janeway House today, come together in the forlorn apartment. Precipitated by Walker’s instability and his tendency to flee, it’s been a long separation. They discover Ned’s spare journal in which he cryptically mentions “three days of rain” in April 1960. Theo’s son Pip arrives, high on his instant fame as “Butte” on a TV soap. He, too, is a legatee, though his father died when he was only 3.
In Act Two the young people portray their own parents ” ah, so that’s why they are what they are! The audience discovers the significance of those three days of rain and also the truth about genius, its impediments and its surprising muse.
Costume designer Mary Larson captures the two periods in accurate and understated shorthand. Matt Warburton’s sound design does good rain. But it’s the poignancy of unraveled mystery that one takes away.
A contender for the Pulitzer Prize, “Three Days of Rain” was commissioned by South Coast Repertory and debuted in New York in 1997. Among Greenberg’s additional works are “Eastern Standard,” “Take Me Out” (Tony Award for best play), “The Violet Hour” and “The American Plan.”
“Three Days of Rain” continues through June 17 at Compass Theatre, 3704 6th Ave. at Pennsylvania, Hillcrest. For schedule and tickets, visit www.compasstheatre.com or call (619) 688-9210.