In An Ocean of Rain, the scenes differentiated themselves between the introspective ones, which could inhabit a more lyrical dimension, and the more narrative scenes that could be presented in a clear, unelaborated and succinct way. In fact, it was only after realising that the whole text could be interpreted as the figment of Kiev’s imagination, that I felt comfortable to let the characters sing at all; seeing the characters of Kyoto, New York and Cairo, the cosmopolitan women who volunteer in the orphanage as ghosts, enabled me to imagine them as having different voices to the living. The key point being that all but Kiev, the character from which the story unfolds, could be seen as dead, or at least inhabiting a disembodied space of memory and desires. We actually never know if Kiev is imagining them, if they are a result of Kiev’s morphine induced hallucination, or if they are indeed ghosts.
There is an almost ‘Orphic’ play about the narrative line that reveals these dead women, as if the only way Kiev can enter the orphanage, metaphorically and perhaps literally a place in limbo, is to set herself on fire, as though she were entering the underworld. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the story takes place in Haiti, there seems to be something resonating in Voodoo culture that at the crossroads of the living and the dead there is a ritual of fire.
For all its disjointed narrative and changing viewpoints, the architecture of An Ocean of Rain has some similarities with ancient Greek drama. The three main pillars of the libretto are the ‘wave’ scenes, where the women observe their lifeless bodies that have been washed up by the tsunami, hinting at the coming (or past) cataclysm, which has left them in this after-life limbo. These scenes divide the work into three time strands, seen through Kiev as; her attempt to re-enter the orphanage on the run from a possible crime, her recuperation after her self-immolation, and an epilogue after the tsunami, where she comes to terms and peace with the ghosts that inhabit her mind. And all the way through the drama, a chorus of orphans reflect and comment on the passing scenes, becoming increasingly darker and disembodied as the narrative unfolds.