AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

Science Fiction writers call upon the depths of their imaginations to explore territory outside the walls of the everyday. Director/adapter Jon Levin follows suit in There Will Come Soft Rains, his inventive re-imagining of three classic sci-fi stories.

Levin’s adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s darkly-comic How the World Was Saved features extraterrestrial light-bulb head inventors (bunraku-like puppets designed by Farah Joyner), while his version of Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg’s On the Nature of Time uses video projection to capture the disturbing paradox of time travel. But it’s the clever choreography in the staging of Bradbury’s titular story There Will Come Soft Rains that truly astounds. Armed with three large squares of plastic, a white sheet, and a bucket of water, three agile actresses embody the working parts of a mechanized house that’s still preparing breakfast for its inhabitants who no longer exist after a nuclear holocaust in 2026.

A treat for sci-fi enthusiasts, this unearthly triptych captivates, taking theatergoers daringly beyond the comforts of reality’s confines.

---- Lori Laster

Presented by Sinking Ship as part of The New York International Fringe Festival at THE NEW SCHOOL FOR DRAMA, 151 BANK STREET, NYC.

This show was extended and is part of FringeNYC Encore Series at THE BARROW STREET THEATER, 27 BARROW STREET, NYC. [remaining performances Sept 2 8:00pm; Sept 2 8:00p.m.; Sept 5 11:00p.m.; Sept 6 9:00p.m.]

212-691-1555 www. fringenyc-encoreseries.com