"The Rainmaker" at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Now through August 18

 

Real honest-to-goodness thunder, lightning and rain created premature authenticity outside the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey on the evening I attended and where N. Richard Nash’s classic 1954 play “The Rainmaker” is having a terrific revival. Nature’s fateful, perhaps playful trick, may have actually been conjured up by the almost full week of performances given prior to my post opening visit.

It is more likely attributable, however, to the magnetic performance by Anthony Marble playing travelling con-man Bill Starbuck. You will as likely as any of the play’s characters fall for his story-telling as he brags how he can bring rain to the drought-beset western town. This by “pitching sodium chloride up to the clouds, electrifying the cold front, neutralizing the warm front, barometrizing the tropopause and magnetizing occlusions in the sky.” Our skeptical heroine Lizzie (Monette Magrath) says “bunk” to his grandiose claims -- at first.

Because this play deals in magic and believing in yourself, I would like to believe that it was Starbuck who produced the change in the weather and eventually the changes that occur in the down-to-earth people with whom he comes in contact. This touching and tender romance between a rather plain ranch-girl who is fast approaching spinsterhood and a glib dreamer who teaches her to create a new reality by dreaming out loud, is just as inspiring a thesis on inner transformation today as it was 65 years ago when it first opened on Broadway.

Bungling constantly in their attempts to get Lizzie a husband, her father and two brothers become temporary victims of an outrageous con-game which surprisingly turns out to be a blessing. Here then is a non-violent western about people who are tough, funny, and willing to try anything...to make it rain.

STNJ’s Artistic Director is holding the reins firmly on this production and keeps the action moving at a fast clip. All the performances are detailed and sensitive enough to fully realize the truths behind each of the character’s own and very specific reality. Starbuck tells her he intends to stay a while saying “You look up at the sky and you ask for a star. You know you’ll never get it and then one night you look down -- and there it is -- shining in your hand!” Now that’s romance.

Combining  virility and tenderness isn’t easy but this Starbuck did it. And just-plain Lizzie manages the feat of actually letting love make her beautiful before our eyes. Robustly winning are Mark Elliot Wilson as the father, Benjamin Eakely, and Isaac Hockox-Young as his two feisty sons. Nick Plakias as Sheriff Thomas and Corey Sorenson as deputy File are giving outstanding portrayals, the latter having a late-awakening hankering for Lizzie.

The unit setting as evocatively designed by Monte nicely accommodated the farmhouse living room, outside tack room as well as the sheriff’s office. Also in keeping with STNJ’s high standards is the expert lighting by Matthew J. Weisgable, the attire by designer Hugh Hanson and especially the sound design by Steven L. Beckel. Amidst its deluge of laughs and mist of tears, “The Rainmaker” delivers a full shower of entertainment - suitable for the entire family.