Course Blog 11: Sofer, a prop, and "When the Rain Stops Falling"

Joe Stollenwerk as Gabriel York in IU's production

I read Sofer’s argument while also keeping in mind today’s prompt, which meant that I ended up focusing on an object with biblical overtones: the fish from IU Theatre and Drama’s recent/current production of Andrew Bovell’s “When the Rain Stops Falling” (sorry to copy you here, Justin). The image depicts the character Gabriel York  holding a fish that fell from the sky, just in time for him to make lunch for his estranged son, Andrew, whom he abandoned 20 years previously. “The odd thing is that [Gabriel] is in the middle of a desert and, in this fictional 2039, fish are almost extinct. So a kind of miracle begins the play,” says Bovell (emphasis mine) of this moment in an interview with Australian Stage. (To learn more about the plot, check out this page about the Lincoln Center production. Significantly, they also include an image of Gabriel holding the fish.)

Let me begin in a way similar to Sofer’s – by establishing a bit of background on the playwright. Then I will shift to a discussion of the many connotations of the fish prop. Bovell is Australian and he began this piece during a conversation with other theatre practitioners about “humanity’s relationship to the planet” (Australian Stage interview). In particular, they wondered about what would happen as humans continue to devour the planet’s resources to the point that there’s nowhere – no remaining, colonizable island continent – to go. His play envisions this moment as imminent – 2039. In this way, we are at a moment of semiotic uncertainty, as Sofer claims Kyd was as well. Our uncertainty may the increasing awareness of dangerous climate change and decreasing food supplies (especially fish, and especially if you're Australian, I imagine).

Bovell’s previous works have included the plays “Speaking in Tongues,” “Holy Day,” and “Who’s Afraid of the Working Class?” (which became the film Blessed), the film Revelation, and others. So, while I know nothing about his personal religious affiliation, I assume that he has a respectable enough knowledge of biblical ideas. (I would suggest Roman Catholic specifically because he’s calling on Old and New Testament, hagiography, and miracles.)

Now, let’s look at the fish. It clearly references Jesus’ performance when speaking by the sea before dividing the loaves and fishes for the hungry multitude. Gabriel echoes Jesus in his direct address to the audience, his name (after the archangel, according to the play), and his stance. He is alone, drenched, waiting to meet his son, holding the fish gently in his nearly-flat palms. However, he is not a Christ figure – he is ashamed of his life and his failures; he is a ghost of a Christ figure.  (The characters are also ghosting each other throughout this play – you see their young and old iterations together in scenes.)

This moment also recalls Matthew 7:8-10. Again, Jesus is speaking to a crowd: “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for fish, will give a snake?” (HarperCollins Study Bible, NRSV).  Gabriel has asked for help and he is given a fish for his child.

IU's "When the Rain Stops Falling," from the production's Facebook

However, like Kyd in Sofer’s argument, Bovell does not let the Christian allusion be the only possible reading of the object. Surrounded by constantly falling water, these characters are each alone. They are, in essence, fish out of water. They are constantly eating fish soup, yet they are never satisfied – they have been given fish, but they are not taught to fish (Chinese proverb). Similarly, one could read it in the tradition of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 100 Years of Solitude, which also moves toward/away from such Biblical references and has quite a few depictions of animals falling from the sky. It, too, ends with apocalyptic potential due to the compounded pain created by generations of the Buendia family.

Basically, while I don’t always understand the differentiation Sofer is making between the ghosting and allusion, I think his approach is useful. I wasn’t able to chart the specific theatre history behind this fish as he does (which may be his particular contribution), but I hope the biblical performance history is helpful. (And Jess, if you know the names of the actors in the second image, could you help me? I don't have a program.)