The Rainmaker at Burning Coal Theatre Company

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2. The Rainmaker

Authors

• N. Richard Nash

This heartfelt classic is set in 1936 during the late summer in the sweeping landscape of Western Iowa at a time of drought. Cattle are "down and out" on the Curry ranch and temperatures are a stifling 104 degrees at night. As the relentless sun scorches the grasses' verdure and desperation creeps into the characters' lives, a young woman's search for love begins when a picaresque stranger with a "mellifluous tongue" enters and claims that he can bring rain.

Nash, who was born and raised in South Philadelphia, conceived the play after a trip through the drought-ridden Southwest during the summer of 1951. He met a dirt-covered eight-year-old boy at a filling station who was clutching a long, forked stick. It hadn't rained in a long time. Nash noticed that the boy shook the stick at the sky every few minutes. When he asked what the stick was for, the boy simply answered, "Rain."