NOW 'RAIN' FOR MELBOURNE

Brink Productions' award winning 2008 Adelaide Festival premiere, When the Rain Stops Falling, will have a seven week season in Melbourne as part of the Melbourne Theatre Company's 2009 subscription season announced there last night, to be presented in association with Melbourne Festival.

In recent weeks Brink Productions was awarded a 2008 South Australian Ruby Award for Best Work for its production (4 September) and Andrew Bovell's script collected both the Louis  Esson Prize for Drama at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards (1 September) and the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Drama Script (Stage)  (16  September).  The same cast and creative team will be involved in both the Melbourne and Sydney seasons. In Sydney Rain will play in the Drama Theatre at Sydney Opera House from 11 May to 13 June, with previews from 7 May. In Melbourne it will play at the New Sumner Theatre from 12 October to 22 November, with previews from 7 October 2009.

Brink Productions' Artistic Director Chris Drummond said,' On top of the recent Sydney season announcement, the Ruby Award and the two Premier's Literary Awards we are thrilled that When The Rain Stops Falling will also be seen by Melbourne audiences. Its overall success is testament not just to the skill of all the collaborators but also of allowing the necessary time and resources needed to create a work of such substance.

MTC's artistic director Simon Phillips said: ' Watching Chris Drummond's award-winning production at the Adelaide Festival, I was engrossed by its dextrous crossing and recrossing of silken narrative threads, feeling astonished by Andrew Bovell's complete mastery of his material. Count this as unmissable: a bold idea, a large canvas and stunning theatrical execution. Inside Hossein Valamanesh's exquisite setting accompanied by Quentin Grant's evocative music score, Paul Blackwell, Michaela Cantwell, Carmel Johnson, Kris McQuade, Yalin Ozucelik, Anna Lise Phillips and Neil Pigot give powerful and moving performances.

When The Rain Stops Falling is an epic piece of Australian storytelling combining the talents of one of Australia's leading stage and screenwriters Andrew Bovell (Lantana, Head On) with the designs of acclaimed visual artist Hossein Valamanesh, the music and soundscapes of composer Quentin Grant, lighting design by Niklas Pajanti and video design by TheimaGen.

When The Rain Stops Falling tell the sweeping narrative of one family's journey through four generations of interconnected stories, from the claustrophobia of a small 1950s London flat to the windswept coast of South Australia and into the heart of the Australian desert. Set against a backdrop of a dramatically changing climate and an uncertain future, When The Rain Stops Falling speaks with tremendous power about the legacy we inherit from our parents and the legacy we leave behind for our children.

 ' ... a spellbinding saga' The Australian

The world premiere season in Feb/March 2008 of When The Rain Stops Falling was presented by Brink Productions, State Theatre Company of South Australia and Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts.