RAINSHARK

Synopsis

The play takes place on the patio outside Mike and Pinkie’s house—a once grand manor-style building that is now looking pretty run-down. Mike minds the farm, which used to belong to his older brother Bernie. He employs a handful of migrant black African farm workers, but there’s been no rain for months, the crops are dying, the workers are talking about unionizing, and Mike is starting to get desperate.

As the play begins, Boy Wheeler, born and raised here in this rural area of South Africa, comes over to show Mike his new van. Instead he finds Pinkie, Mike’s girlfriend, who is preoccupied with what the dry weather is doing to her skin. Another young woman arrives, and Boy soon recognizes her as Deirdre, Bernie’s daughter and Mike’s niece. She grew up on this farm and has come back from the big city of Johannesburg to visit. But she doesn’t look well, and it turns out she hasn’t eaten for three days, as she’s been hitching rides to get here.

Mike comes home that evening and he and Pinkie and Deirdre talk about the old days. Deirdre’s father was evidently more reserved than Mike—Mike was always considered the wild brother. Pinkie complains about the South African countryside, and she and Mike start to bicker when suddenly the party is interrupted by a fast-talking stranger. He says his name is Dr. Ellington, and that he has come to see Mike’s pool. When he also claims he can bring rain to the area, Pinkie tells Mike to send him on his way. But although Mike initially thinks that Ellington is talking nonsense, he eventually tells him to come back the next evening so they can talk further.

The following night, Ellington explains what he will need Mike and Pinkie to do to help bring the rain, and Mike convinces Pinkie to go along. But is Ellington for real, or is he a "chancer," gambling with other people’s money and hope? And what will happen when Deirdre discovers what else Ellington’s midnight ritual involves? By the end of the play, all of the characters, like the citizens of South Africa today, will be forced to examine their own beliefs and convictions and to deal with each other on new terms.