by N. Richard Nash
dir. Bonnie J. Monte, asst. Elliott Puckette
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019

Photography by Joe Guerin

The 1957 award-winning film, starring Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn, was based on this great American stage classic, as was the musical, 110 Degrees in the Shade. Author N. Richard Nash calls the play a romantic comedy but it is so much more. Set in rural, dust-bowl America, it is about a parched land desperate for rain, and the tough but lonely people who live there, thirsting for love. This is a play about yearning, family, hope, and the magic that sometimes pours down on us from the unlikeliest of sources.

CAST

Noah – Benjamin Eakeley
HC – Mark Elliot Wilson
Jim – Isaac Hickox-Young
Lizzie – Monette Magrath
File – Corey Sorenson
Sheriff – Nick Plakias
Starbuck – Anthony Marble

PRODUCTION TEAM

Production Stage Manager – Becky Abramowitz
Assistant Stage Managers – Erin Collins and Devyn Tibbals
Set Designer – Bonnie J. Monte
Lighting Designer – Matthew J. Weisgable
Costume Designer – Hugh Hanson
Sound Designer – Steven L. Beckel

The Wall Street Journal Review

“Warm, sympathetic and richly humane, it’s one of the very best things that Ms. Monte and her marvelous company have given us…”

“The manifold virtues of this revival start with Ms. Magrath, whose acting is a miracle of creative imagination—she becomes beautiful, right before your amazed eyes—and extend to the performances of the entire supporting cast.”

“Ms. Monte has staged [Lizzie and Starbuck’s] climactic encounter with hushed delicacy, and Ms. Magrath and Mr. Marble are more than equal to the challenge of bringing it to gently persuasive life.”

“If you’ve been feeling bruised of late, whatever your reasons may be, Ms. Monte’s “Rainmaker,” with its shining message of hope in the face of prolonged trial, is just the medicine you need. I’ll be surprised if I ever see it done better.”