When the Rain Stops Falling Read online

  GABRIEL LAW, 28, enters and shakes the water from his umbrella. He closes it and hangs it on a hook. He removes his raincoat and hangs it beside the umbrella. He crosses to the window and stares down into the street as the YOUNGER ELIZABETH moves from the window and enters the bathroom as the OLDER GABRIELLE enters from the bathroom and stops, lost in a moment’s thought as JOE takes a bowl and spoon and fills his bowl with soup as the YOUNGER GABRIELLE takes a place at the table and proceeds to eat her soup alone as does Elizabeth. We can hear the YOUNGER ELIZABETH urinating as

  HENRY LAW, 40s, enters and shakes the water from his black umbrella. He closes it and hangs it on a hook. He removes his raincoat and hangs it beside the umbrella. Then he removes his hat and hangs it over the raincoat. He moves to the window and stares down into the street as GABRIEL moves from the window and enters the adjacent bathroom as the YOUNGER ELIZABETH enters from the bathroom and hesitates, lost in a moment’s thought. She places her hand on her belly as the OLDER GABRIELLE takes a bowl and spoon and fills her bowl with soup as JOE takes his place at the table and eats his soup alone as do the YOUNGER GABRIELLE and the OLDER ELIZABETH. We can hear GABRIEL urinating.

  HENRY moves from the window and enters the adjacent bathroom as GABRIEL enters from the bathroom and hesitates, lost in a moment’s thought as the YOUNGER ELIZABETH takes a bowl and spoon and fills her bowl with soup as the OLDER GABRIELLE takes her place at the table and proceeds to eat her soup alone as do JOE, the YOUNGER GABRIELLE and the OLDER ELIZABETH. We can hear HENRY urinating.

  Then HENRY enters from the bathroom and hesitates, lost in a moment’s thought as GABRIEL takes a spoon and bowl and fills his bowl with soup as the YOUNGER ELIZABETH takes her place at the table and proceeds to eat her soup alone as do the OLDER GABRIELLE, JOE, the YOUNGER GABRIELLE and the OLDER ELIZABETH.

  Then HENRY takes a bowl and spoon and fills his bowl with soup as GABRIEL takes his place at the table and proceeds to eat his soup alone as do the YOUNGER ELIZABETH, the OLDER GABRIELLE, JOE, the YOUNGER GABRIELLE and the OLDER ELIZABETH.

  Then HENRY takes his place at the table and proceeds to eat his soup.

  And now all seven are at the table, alone and eating their soup in silence. And the move of their spoons to their mouths slowly falls into a shared rhythm until the OLDER ELIZABETH looks up from her bowl.

  ELIZABETH: How’s the soup?

  And then they all rise and exit except for ELIZABETH and GABRIEL LAW.

  And we are in

  ELIZABETH LAW’S ROOM

  LONDON 1988

  GABRIEL: Fine.

  ELIZABETH: I wasn’t sure what to give you.

  GABRIEL: No.

  ELIZABETH: It’s just that when you called you said you’d be here for lunch.

  GABRIEL: Actually, I said I’d be here about twelve and you said why not come for lunch.

  ELIZABETH: And you said fine.

  GABRIEL: But I said don’t go to any trouble.

  ELIZABETH: Nevertheless. [Beat.] Did you get very wet?

  GABRIEL: I had my umbrella.

  ELIZABETH: Well yes, it’s the day for it. Still, there are people drowning in Bangladesh so we shouldn’t complain.

  GABRIEL: It wasn’t a complaint. [Beat.] Have you done something?

  ELIZABETH: What?

  GABRIEL: Changed something.

  ELIZABETH: I’ve painted.

  GABRIEL: By yourself?

  ELIZABETH: No. I had a man in.

  GABRIEL: Could you afford that?

  ELIZABETH: I had some paint left over.

  GABRIEL: But the labour?

  ELIZABETH: I had a little put away.

  GABRIEL: I could have helped you.

  ELIZABETH: What? With the money.

  GABRIEL: Well yes, if you needed it.

  ELIZABETH: But I had a little put away.

  GABRIEL: I could have done the painting then.

  ELIZABETH: Well… yes.

  GABRIEL: You should have asked.

  ELIZABETH: I didn’t think of it.

  GABRIEL: Well, next time.

  ELIZABETH: Next time?

  GABRIEL: Next time you paint.

  ELIZABETH: Well, that won’t be for a while.

  GABRIEL: I know but… Well.

  The YOUNGER ELIZABETH enters. She shakes the water from her black umbrella. She closes it and hangs it on a hook. She removes her raincoat and hangs it beside the umbrella. Then she moves to the window and looks down into the street.

  ELIZABETH [OLDER]: There’s a new fishmonger in the high street and after your call I thought, well, what will I give him? He’s such a fussy eater. Always has been. Do you remember? What a fussy eater you were?

  GABRIEL: No.

  ELIZABETH: You ate like a bird. You picked at your food. You didn’t eat. You picked. I’m surprised you didn’t starve to death. And I mean I don’t know what you like or don’t like, your tastes are a mystery to me, so I walked down the street thinking I might be inspired, in this weather, would you believe?

  GABRIEL: But I said don’t go to any trouble.

  ELIZABETH: But you had to eat.

  The YOUNGER ELIZABETH turns from the window and then hesitates, lost in a moment’s thought.

  Anyway, I was on the high street and I saw the new shop. It had only just opened and it had a display in the window of this most beautiful fish. I mean I don’t know what it was. It was certainly not a cod or a haddock. God knows where it came from and I thought, well, what about fish? Well, not fish. But fish soup. Something light. He won’t want something heavy. Not at lunchtime. Not with his appetite.

  The YOUNGER ELIZABETH proceeds to take a bowl and a spoon and fill her bowl with soup from a large pot on the stove.

  You do eat fish?

  GABRIEL: Not often.

  ELIZABETH: They say it’s good for you. And it’s simple. Easy to prepare. Especially for one.

  GABRIEL: Anyway… how are you, Mum?

  The YOUNGER ELIZABETH takes a place at the table and proceeds to eat her soup.

  ELIZABETH: Oh well, you know.

  GABRIEL: What does that mean?

  ELIZABETH: I never know how to answer that. I’m never sure whether people, when they ask it, want me to tell them the truth or whether they just want me to go through the motions. If it’s the latter you want then I’m very well, thank you. I’ve been a little tired and I’m fighting off a cold but no, on the whole I’m fine.

  GABRIEL: Actually I’d prefer the truth.

  The YOUNGER ELIZABETH stops eating.

  ELIZABETH [OLDER]: I had a fall, Gabriel.

  Beat. HENRY enters.

  ELIZABETH [YOUNGER]: There you are.

  GABRIEL and the OLDER ELIZABETH exit.

  And we are in

  THE SAME ROOM

  LONDON 1959

  As they speak, HENRY shakes the water from his umbrella and hangs it on a hook, removes his raincoat and hangs it beside the umbrella and then removes a hat and hangs it over the raincoat.

  HENRY: What unbelievable weather.

  ELIZABETH: Torrential.

  HENRY: In London!

  ELIZABETH: Are you very wet?

  HENRY: Drenched. Still, there are people drowning in East Pakistan so we shouldn’t complain.

  ELIZABETH: There’s soup in the pot.

  HENRY: [crossing to the window] Wonderful.

  ELIZABETH: It’s fish, I’m afraid.

  HENRY looks down into the street below.

  There’s a new fishmonger in the high street. Lovely man. Greek. Do anything for you.

  HENRY moves from the window and enters the adjacent bathroom.

  I was walking past thinking what would we eat when I saw this huge fish in the window, God knows where it came from, and I thought, well, what about fish? Well, not fish but fish soup. I only had to boil some heads and add some herbs and vegetables, neither of which I had, so it’s just the heads I’m afraid, but there you are. Actually, there’s something I should tell you.

  HENRY: [en
tering] I was reading this piece on the way home. [He proceeds to the stove and fills his bowl with soup.] ‘The Year Without a Summer.’ 1816. Heavy frosts and snowstorms sweep across North America and Europe in the middle of June.

  ELIZABETH: Heavens!

  HENRY: [taking his place at the table] Followed by weeks of unseasonable rain. Crops fail. Prices soar. Famine in China due to the failure of the rice crop. Food riots in England and France. Absolute disaster. But the greatest acts of civil disobedience occur in Switzerland.

  ELIZABETH: Switzerland?

  HENRY: Well, exactly. The whole thing was caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia the year before. In Italy there were reports of red snow. People ran through the streets screaming, ‘The heavens are bleeding’. They thought it was the end of the world.

  ELIZABETH: Well, I imagine it was for some.

  HENRY: Two hundred thousand dead in Europe alone. Uncounted more in Asia and Russia. And in America hundreds of thousands flee west trying to escape the weather. It shifted whole populations, Beth. It changed the course of history. The weather! And it made me think just how helpless we are when the weather turns against us. All our science. All our knowledge. All our magnificent endeavour amounts to very little in the face of bad weather.

  ELIZABETH: Do you think so? I mean the fact that 1817 followed 1816 suggests a degree of resilience worth considering, Henry. We survived. Or most of us did. And anyway Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in Switzerland in 1816. So there you are. It will take more than bad weather to silence the human mind. Actually, I know why the greatest acts of civil disobedience occurred in Switzerland.

  HENRY: Why?

  ELIZABETH: Because the more ordered a society the less able it is to cope with chaos. Whilst a naturally chaotic one such as Italy can face a fair degree of disaster before the people actually start to panic.

  HENRY: Your mind, Beth.

  ELIZABETH: It makes sense, Henry.

  HENRY: I fell in love with you because of your mind.

  ELIZABETH: What were you looking at… before… at the window when you came in?

  HENRY: A woman.

  ELIZABETH: Red umbrella. Herringbone jacket.

  HENRY: How did you know?

  ELIZABETH: I saw her from the window.

  HENRY: What was she doing?

  ELIZABETH: Talking to you.

  HENRY: Well yes, she followed me all the way from the station.

  ELIZABETH: What did she want?

  HENRY: She said she had my hat.

  ELIZABETH: Do you have a hat?

  HENRY: Well, exactly! She said she saw me leave it on the seat in the train. And as she was getting off anyway, she thought that she would take the hat and return it to me. But I walk fast. You know how fast I walk, and she couldn’t keep up.

  ELIZABETH: The heels wouldn’t have helped.

  HENRY: And she said that she was calling… ‘Excuse me… your hat.’

  ELIZABETH: Well, didn’t you hear her?

  HENRY: Well yes, I heard her but I didn’t pay it any attention.

  ELIZABETH: Why not?

  HENRY: Because I didn’t know she was talking to me. I mean I just thought she was some woman chasing a man who had lost his hat.

  ELIZABETH: Well, that’s exactly what she was, Henry.

  HENRY: But I don’t wear a hat.

  ELIZABETH: No, you don’t. Normally.

  JOE enters. He shakes the water from his umbrella and hangs it on a hook. He removes his raincoat and hangs it on a hook beside the umbrella.

  HENRY: So eventually she catches up with me and she was breathless, the poor thing, and I’m thinking, quite wrongly as it turns out, why do they always choose me…?

  JOE moves to the window and looks down to the street below.

  And she’s saying, ‘I have your hat. You left your hat on the train.’ And she’s thrusting it into my hands and I find myself saying, I mean the words just fall out of my mouth, I say, ‘Thank you’.

  Then JOE moves into the adjacent bathroom.

  ELIZABETH: But it wasn’t your hat.

  HENRY: I know.

  ELIZABETH: Why didn’t you tell her?

  HENRY: Because she had gone to so much trouble and seemed so pleased with herself for returning the hat. I mean she’d run nearly a mile to give it to me and probably ruined her heels in the process. I just didn’t want to disappoint her.

  ELIZABETH: So what happened to the hat?

  HENRY: [crossing to the hook and retrieving the hat]. It’s here. Hanging on the hook. [He takes the hat and puts it on.] Like it was mine.

  ELIZABETH: But it’s not yours.

  JOE comes out of the bathroom and stops, remembering his hat.

  HENRY: No.

  ELIZABETH: Then whose hat is it?

  JOE touches his head and realises that his hat’s not there.

  HENRY: I have no idea.

  ELIZABETH: Well.

  HENRY: Exactly.

  ELIZABETH: There’s something I should tell you, Henry.

  HENRY: What?

  ELIZABETH: I’m pregnant.

  Beat.

  HENRY: Right.

  ELIZABETH: I know.

  HENRY: Well.

  ELIZABETH: Unexpected.

  HENRY: A little.

  ELIZABETH: Will we manage, because I can /

  HENRY: No.

  ELIZABETH: Because I don’t mind…

  HENRY: We’ll manage.

  ELIZABETH: It’s just that /

  HENRY: Of course we’ll manage.

  ELIZABETH: It’s just that /

  HENRY: We’ll manage, Beth.

  ELIZABETH: Yes but it wasn’t meant to happen, was it? Perhaps ten years ago. When I was ready. But not now, Henry. Because I’ve got on. I’ve made a life without it and, to be frank, to be perfectly honest, I’m just not sure I want it.

  The OLDER GABRIELLE enters and shakes the water from her umbrella.

  JOE: There you are.

  HENRY and ELIZABETH exit.

  And we are in

  JOE RYAN AND GABRIELLE YORK’S ROOM

  ADELAIDE 2013

  GABRIELLE: Where?

  She closes the umbrella and hangs it on the hook.

  JOE: By the door. Hanging up your umbrella.

  GABRIELLE: Am I? I thought I was by the window scratching my bum.

  She removes her raincoat and hangs it on a hook beside the umbrella.

  JOE: I’ve lost my hat.

  GABRIELLE: Terrible weather.

  JOE: Did you get wet?

  GABRIELLE: I had my umbrella.

  JOE: You’ve been out.

  GABRIELLE: I went for a walk.

  JOE: Where to?

  GABRIELLE: Still there are people drowning…

  She trails away.

  JOE: What?

  GABRIELLE: In Bangladesh. There are people drowning in Bangladesh.

  JOE: Are there?

  GABRIELLE: It’s just what people say, Joe. A figure of speech.

  JOE: I’ve never heard it.

  GABRIELLE: Was that lightning? Did you see it?

  JOE: No.

  GABRIELLE: Listen.

  Sure enough, a rumble of thunder. She moves to the window.

  I hate nights like this. When I was a kid they would frighten me. Still do… On nights like this ships are lost at sea.

  JOE: There’s soup in the pot. [He takes a bowl and a spoon and fills the bowl with soup from a large pot on the stove.] It’s fish… They say it’s good for you. Good for the brain. Not sure what it does exactly but they say we should have it three times a week at least. Not sure I could eat it that often but I thought it was worth a try.

  JOE places the bowl of soup on the table.

  GABRIELLE: Did Gabriel call?

  JOE: No, Love.

  GABRIELLE: Are you sure? He might have left a message.

  JOE: I’ve checked… there’s no message. [Beat.] Come and have some soup.

  GABRIELLE: What kind of soup?

&nbs
p; JOE: Fish.

  She moves to the table, takes a place and proceeds to eat her soup.

  GABRIELLE: Somebody said it’s very good for you. Good for the brain. You should have it three times a week or something.

  JOE: That’s right.

  GABRIELLE: It tastes like the sea.

  The YOUNGER GABRIELLE enters and shakes the water from her umbrella. She hangs it on a hook and removes her raincoat and hangs it on the hook beside it. She moves to the window and looks out.

  What’s happening to me, Joe?

  JOE: Nothing, Love. You’re wandering a bit, that’s all. You’re not sure if it’s today or tomorrow or yesterday. And who can blame you for that. They’re all much the same.

  GABRIELLE: Hold my hand.

  JOE takes her hand.

  I won’t have it… You’re not to hold on forever.

  JOE: I have to go out for a bit. See if I can find that hat.

  GABRIELLE: What hat?

  JOE: I lost my hat.

  GABRIELLE: Terrible weather.

  JOE: Did you get wet?

  GABRIELLE: I had my umbrella.

  JOE: You’ve been out.

  GABRIELLE: I went for a walk.

  JOE: Where to?

  GABRIELLE: The shops.

  JOE: What for?

  GABRIELLE: Cigarettes.

  JOE: You don’t smoke.

  GABRIELLE: I do.

  JOE: You do not.

  GABRIELLE: I bloody do.

  JOE: Well, I didn’t know.

  GABRIELLE: Well, there are a lot of things you don’t know. A lot of things about me. Parts of me that you don’t know.

  JOE: I should find that hat. [He takes his raincoat and umbrella.] I won’t be long.

  He exits.

  GABRIELLE [OLDER]: There are parts of me you’ve never touched.

  GABRIEL LAW enters and the OLDER GABRIELLE exits.

  And we are in

  A ROADHOUSE

  ON THE COORONG 1988

  GABRIEL sees the YOUNGER GABRIELLE at the window.

  GABRIEL: Hello.

  GABRIELLE: Shit… You frightened me.

  GABRIEL: I’m sorry.

  GABRIELLE: Where did you come from?

  GABRIEL: I just pulled up… I’m driving through the Coorong.

  GABRIELLE: What for?

  GABRIEL: To see it, I suppose. [Beat.] Terrible weather. Still, there are people drowning in Bangladesh so we shouldn’t complain.