The Rainmaker Feels Very Modern, Very Funny, and Very Worth a Trip to Lyric Arts in Anoka

The Rainmaker was written in the early 1950’s, set during the great depression, but feels incredibly modern in its approach to interpersonal relationships. The Curry family are losing cattle due to a drought when a Rainmaker comes by and offers to make it rain within 24 hours for $100. That’s the tagline but it’s not really what the play is about. The play is really about believing in yourself, the importance of hope and of having dreams. It’s about the ways in which those without dreams sometimes only see them as dangers, and the damage they can do to those around them in trying to protect them from dreams. I wasn’t sure what to expect, never having seen the play or the famous 1956 film starring Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn, but what expectations I did have were completely off base. I thought it would be a serious drama about the depression and a con man who takes advantage of people down on their luck. Instead it’s a warm, funny, and inspirational work that connects to the audience as they characters strive to make connections to themselves.

Director Ben Thietje has brought together a fantastic cast, some familiar faces and a couple of new ones that were quite impressive. Eric Knutson, as the titular Rainmaker Bill Starbuck, may be a liar but he wants to believe everything he says. His entrance and first scene sets the tone, he is boundless in his quest to find the right line to reel in his prey. With arms outstretched he makes his pitch in the Curry living room as if he was in a large outdoor church meeting tent speaking to a crowd of hundreds. Knutson has the perfect amount of charm to sell the act and make us see the dreamer inside the con man. Nora Targonski-O’Brien is wonderfully subtle and raw as the daughter and sister Lizzie Curry whom her family is worried will never marry, and thus become an old maid. It reminds me of the line in It’s a Wonderful Life when Clarence tells George that if he were never born Mary becomes an old maid!! Like not getting married is the worst possible fate for a woman. It’s a comment on the times in which the play was set and written, but for all that in many other ways it feels very permissive and forward thinking. The entire cast is solid, but there were two performers that I’m not sure I’d really seen before that were both great in their roles. I want to mention them, so as to hopefully have their names stick in my mind so I can watch for them in upcoming productions. Samuel Burnham plays the eldest son and brother Noah Curry and Christopher D. Knutson who plays the Sheriff’s deputy, File. Where other actors need to go big for their roles, these two ground it in a reality, perfect for their characters.

Adding to the evenings entertainment is a wonderful set design by Justin Hooper, Lighting design by Alyssa Kraft, sound design by Corinne Steffens, and some nice costuming from Samantha Fromm Haddow. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Curry family and it’s script by N. Richard Nash seems as relevant and modern as something written today, seventy years later. The Rainmaker runs through March 23rd at Lyric Arts in Anoka. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.lyricarts.org/rainmaker

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