Candles in the Rain

This play was originally a One Act which won The Jackson/Reeve Award for Best Original Play and Best Supporting Actor at the South West One Act Festival (Bunbury) in 2004.

“Candles in the rain can never be lit. They have no spark or flame. They bring no light to those who have no place, to those who have no name.”

The characters are fictional but I think they speak for those who remain homeless who are judged upon appearances but they like all of us each have a journey through life. I extended the play to open up and show the relationship between the two men. They both need one another as they, like us cannot survive the journey through life, alone. The time is the early sixties in London. The play opens in a rundown ballroom and revolves around the relationship between two men, Albert and Stan, and Albert’s dog Tinker. They have survived together for years roaming from one abandoned building to another never finding a home. Albert has been Stan’s guardian since they were released from an Asylum. Albert is a shell shocked veteran of the war. Stan is suicidal since an incident of a lost sister when he was a child. Albert keeps Stan alive by living on a dream of going to Torquay, and Stan tries to make Albert forget the war with humour and tales of his shattered life until one rainy night Albert goes out to forage for food and returns with more than he had bargained for as he is followed by a stranger.

Noel O’Neill

Director/Playwright