American Theater Web: THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS

A DOWNPOUR OF INGENUITY

Science Fiction writers call upon the depths of their imaginations to explore territory outside the walls of the everyday. Director/adapter [[Jon Levin]] follows suit in [[There Will Come Soft Rains]], his inventive re-imagining of three classic sci-fi stories.

Levin’s adaptation of [[Stanislaw Lem]]’s darkly-comic "How the World Was Saved" features extraterrestrial light-bulb head inventors (bunraku-like puppets designed by [[Farah Ballentine Joyner|Farah Joyner]]), while his version of [[Bill Pronzini]] and [[Barry N. Malzberg]]’s "On the Nature of Time" uses video projection to capture the disturbing paradox of time travel. But it’s the clever choreography in the staging of [[Ray Bradbury|Bradbury]]’s titular story "There Will Come Soft Rains" that truly astounds. Armed with three large squares of plastic, a white sheet, and a bucket of water, three agile actresses embody the working parts of a mechanized house that’s still preparing breakfast for its inhabitants who no longer exist after a nuclear holocaust in 2026.

A treat for sci-fi enthusiasts, this unearthly triptych captivates, taking theatergoers daringly beyond the comforts of reality’s confines.