4

	Pleasance Dome (venue website) Theatre 1-12, 14-27 Aug, 3:40pm-4:55pm Reviewed by Alice de Cent
Family-friendly. Suitable for all ages.

Curious Directive’s latest offering features a British official racing across the Egyptian desert in 1952, an art student who lost her brother to a mining accident in 1986, and a young Egyptian woman on a pilgrimage in 2012 to see the Rosetta Stone. And in 2022, John has written a bestselling book on the life of ants, Grace is working on a controversial nuclear waste depository in the Sahara, and they’re about to go live on Al Jazeera.

With striking projected images and flawless choreography, After The Rainfall won’t disappoint on a visual score. One small frustration if you’re not right at the front is the couple of moments that take place on the floor, and out of view. Moving the action slightly further back might make these points more accessible for those sitting further away from the stage.

Still, jumping about in time and place, the show is well-constructed – never leaving the audience behind as they sow the subtle connections between the tales. The storytelling is well-judged and consistent, clearly establishing the common themes across the individual journeys of the characters.

After The Rainfall is a clever show, and at times this feels like it could be its undoing. With slick visuals and interconnecting plots, it can at times seem a little contrived, lacking that hard-to-define but essential element that make the characters into people the audience cares about.

Still, Curious Directive are clearly a talented company with the proven ability to create an impressive piece of work. After The Rainfall is an accomplished show, but somehow feels a little like theatre by numbers, where the sum of its parts doesn’t quite add up to the whole.