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Review: _The Half-God of Rainfall_
We continue to get to shows at the American Repertory Theater when we can, because they are usually intriguing and often great. Tonight was The Half-God of Rainfall, and it was no exception.
This isn't quite a play in the traditional sense; rather, it is an hour-and-a-half long poem, telling a story that is being enacted by the actors as they say it, describing their characters' actions more often than engaging in straightforward dialogue.
That sounds dry, but it's anything but -- this is a show that is extraordinarily physical, and not in a way that you will conventionally see on stage. And that's because the story is a delicious hybrid of traditions, slamming together Greek and Yoruba mythology to tell the story of Demi, son of Modupe (high priestess of the river goddess Osun) and Zeus. The tale has many of the elements of Greek tragedy, but told from the viewpoint of Yoruba storytelling, with choreography that is distinctly African in its influences.
Demi has powers over weather, making it rain whether he likes it or not. But what he really wants to do is play basketball, and his life is woven, semi-fictionally, into the history of the sport over half a dozen or so years, starting as a Nigerian boy who can't miss the shot, then escaping to the USA pro scene.
That said, you don't need to know or care much about the details of the sport -- for purposes of this story, it is a field of battle, the modern substitute for the shores of Troy. Primarily, this is about the gods meddling in the affairs of mortals, the Olympians clashing with the Orisha, while the mortals are mostly trying to get on with their lives.
A big, big content warning applies, and it comes from Demi's parentage. Like so many demigods, he is the son of Zeus and a mortal woman. And therefore, this is primarily a story about rape: its horror, its effects, and the rage it leaves behind. Zeus is very much the villain of this tale, and while a measure of justice is meted out in the end, it's a dark path getting there.
So while Demi is the title character of the story, Modupe is the real protagonist here IMO, and we see her from many sides, a powerful force of nature in her own right. Zeus' crime leaves her scarred, but by no means broken.
It's hard to say more without getting deep into spoilers, but suffice it to say, it's well worth seeing if you get a chance. It's playing at the ART for another couple of weeks; I sincerely hope that it will then go on to be seen elsewhere.
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