Jean-Luc Lagarceʼs play "I was at home and waited for the rain" ("J'étais dans ma ma ma maison et j'attendais que la pluie vienne") is the penultimate work of the French actor, director and playwright. Written in 1994, a year before his death (he died of AIDS at the age of 38), it is one of the playwright's three testamentary works (alongside "It's Only the End of the World", 1990, and "Far Country", 1995).
"I was at home and I waited for the rain to come" tells the story of five women (sisters, a mother, a grandmother) who have been waiting for years for a brother, a son and a grandson. The women's lives have been stagnant, trapped for all this time... Now he is back and lying in the bed they have kept for him. Asleep? Dying? We never see him: is he really there, or is he just a projection of the women's hopes, fears, grievances, expectations?
"I thought it was beautiful that the play seems incomplete, that there are more pauses than action. It opens up a space for interpretation, makes you want to think about the nature of love, sacrifice and truth. The choice of this work is completely intuitive, but it is relevant both for me and for 21st century man. The text's intertwining of tragedy, depth and gentle humour has an emotional impact and opens up a broad and complex theme of waiting." (Kotryna Siaurusaitytė)
I was at home waiting for the rain to come
I was looking at the sky as always,
at the road running far away.
I always watch in the evenings, always in the evenings I stand on the doorstep and wait, wait...
I waited for the rain to come and wet the ground, the paths, the grass
and calm us down.
(Jean-Luc Lagarce. "I was at home waiting for the rain to come". From the French translated by Gintaras Patackas)
