Come Rain or Come Shine

This musical version of the short story is a very unusual choice for an adaptation. The classical love triangle scenario is given unique treatment by Ishiguro. In a very straightforward and rather ordinary manner, the story actually confirms the enduring nature of the friendship between the three characters Emily (Gillian Cosgriff), Ray (Angus Grant), and Charlie (Chris Ryan). They meet at university and Emily and Ray share a passion for Great American Songbook music. Despite the strong affinity that develops over long hours of listening to and discussing the music Emily ultimately falls in love and marries the more charismatic Charlie. Over the years they maintain their friendship with Ray despite having very different working lives and destinies.

The story is mainly set during Ray’s most recent annual visit to Emily and Charlie’s home in London, many years after they have all left university. It takes a very odd turn and the entire drama centres around Ray trying to cover up that he has read what he thinks is Emily’s private diary. Charlie and Ray concoct a ridiculous plan to try to explain this invasion into her privacy. Ray goes to absurd lengths to execute it only to discover that Emily is seriously not bothered. 

The production is a very faithful adaptation of the short story but in its attempt to remain faithful it becomes too literal. Transporting the story to the stage is an interesting and plausible idea but the musical genre seems very out of place. The lack of the cohesion between the very different elements brought together in this show is not due to a lack of quality. The performances and singing are strong and capture all the humour imbued in the text with great precision, the original musical score is moody, melodic and beautifully evocative. It sits alongside the nostalgic exploration of the Great American Songbook melodies that are featured in the show and the music is wonderfully executed by Carlo Barbaro (Reeds), Kieran Rafferty (Drums/Percussion), and Patrick Schmidli (Bass). 

The set reproduces Emily and Charlie’s abodes, and the musicians are very cleverly situated above the action on the level above them, visible through large French windows as though they might be musicians practicing at home. This adds some great ambience to the scenery. 

However, this is the strongest feature of the set design which, in its efforts to painstakingly reproduce all the settings of the story, results in an unnecessary commitment to realism. There are frequent set and scene changes that generally appear somewhat superfluous. 

Bringing this strange story to life, especially as a musical, clearly presents some challenges and this production requires a more innovative and imaginative approach to not only bring out the humour, but also the oddly absurd nature of the story itself and the interesting character study the unusual scenario provides. Ishiguro allows the story to merely fade away towards its end without building up to a large crescendo. This production adds a more dynamic build-up of the narrative, but the show inevitably comes to a rather abrupt end having given the crescendo nowhere to go. While you can appreciate the often-exceptional individual elements in this performance, why they are brought together remains unclear.

Patricia Di Risio 

Photographer: Jeff Busby