(Ben Brantley’s article appeared in the New York Times, 5/18; via Pam Green.)
The forecast for tomorrow (and tomorrow and tomorrow): cloudy with a chance of global annihilation.
The noise of rain on the roof is steady in “The Ruins of Civilization,” Penelope Skinner’s brightly bleak account of British family life in the fairly immediate future, which opened on Wednesday night at City Center Stage II. It is a soothing sound, at least as long as you don’t think about what it signifies, which would be an island nation’s sinking inexorably into the ocean.
Silver (Tim Daly) and Dolores (a deeply sympathetic Rachael Holmes), the couple at the center of this carefully arranged play from the author of “The Village Bike,” have made the choice to avoid such unproductive thoughts. Or he has, anyway. He believes that he should do the thinking for both of them.