After the Rain (play)

After the Rain
Written byJohn Bowen
Date premiered1966
Place premieredHampstead Theatre Club, London[1]
Original languageEnglish

After the Rain is a play by John Griffith Bowen, based on his 1958 novel about a 200-year flood. The action takes place in a university lecture hall two centuries after a massive rainfall.[2][3]

The play's first English staging was at the Hampstead Theatre in 1966, and was notable for involving the audience in the action of the play by situating them as students in a lecture hall.[4]

Its U.S. premiere on October 9, 1967, at the John Golden Theatre in New York City starred Alec McCowen and was directed by Vivian Matalon. It received a good review in The New York Times but only ran a short time.[5]

The play was profiled in the William Goldman book The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway.

  1. ^ "ALLEGORICAL PLAY PRAISED IN LONDON". The New York Times. Sep 3, 1966. p. 12.
  2. ^ Playbill from 1967 production accessed 16 June 2013
  3. ^ RICHARD F. SHEPARD (Oct 13, 1967). "PLAYWRIGHT OPTS FOR THE OLD IDEAS: Bowen, Author of 'After the Rain,' Works on Structure". The New York Times. p. 30.
  4. ^ Jinnie Schiele (2005). Off-centre Stages: Fringe Theatre at the Open Space and the Round House 1968–1983. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. pp. 43–. ISBN 978-1-902806-43-3.
  5. ^ CLIVE BARNES (Oct 10, 1967). "Theater: Play That Extends the Mind: 'After the Rain' by John Bowen Is at Golden Social Parable Deals With Flood Survivors". The New York Times. p. 54.