Starring
Tara Fitzgerald
Imogen Waterhouse
Joe McGann
Sharon Maughan
Writer / Director
Mika Simmons
Producers
Jackie Green
Roberta Moore
DOP
Nick Ball
Composer
Daniel Heath
Music Supervisor
Tom CC
Rain Stops Play is a modern day comedy of errors which addresses the key issues of mistaken identity, modern technology and female ageism. Although we see the world from a male perspective through our protagonist Adam, it is a story for a female audience with searingly current themes.
The basic action of Rain Stops Play is the portrayal of a man who, in mid-life, falls into an extreme fantasy about a younger woman, Alice. The story exposes a husband in crisis whose desperate quest for something other hilariously backfires.
Director’s Statement
The experience I’m most trying to communicate with Rain Stops Play is that of a feeling of breaking something open. While this film has a serious undertone it also exposes how deeply funny life can be in its most humiliating moments. I have used female beauty and comedy as a weapon to try and teach us about ourselves and expose man’s fallibility. It is really a social analysis of sex in society today so in some ways a very big film although here, told through a very small intimate story. It is definitely a film for a female audience, but hopefully it is an invitation to laugh at our humanity and compulsive behaviours. I feel very strongly that it’s important that, in the face of a period of heightened confessions, blame and change, that we can also maintain a lightheartedness and sense of humour about the sex and the sexes.
Rain Stops Play staring Tara Fitzgerald, Joe McGann, Imogen Waterhouse and Sharon Maughan is a comedy short written produced by Jackie Green and Roberta Moore.
In 2019 it was selected for Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival, That Film, Underwire, Portobello, Houston Film Festival and Milwalke International Film Festival.
Sharon Maughan is an actress and producer, known for The Bank Job (2008), She’s Out of My League (2010) and Time Lapse (2014). In 1993, Maughan received excellent reviews for her debut directorial production of Widowers’ Houses in London. In 1997 she and Trevor Eve founded Projector Productions with Charles Haswell. With Trevor as producer, she went on to Executive Produce and star in Cinderella alongside Kathleen Turner, and Executive Produce Twelfth Night, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Joseph McGann is an English actor. His most well known role is the lead role of Charlie Burrows, the “housekeeper” in the TV comedy series The Upper Hand (1990–96). He was also a key character in ITV’s soap Night and Day, who had an affair with the underage main character Jane Harper before her disappearance.
Imogen Waterhouse is an English model and actress known for Nocturnal Animals and Stan Lee’s Lucky Man (2016) and Braid (2018). She is currently filming The Outpost.
Tara Fitzgerald is an English actress who has appeared in feature films, television, radio and the stage. She won the New York Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play in 1995 as Ophelia opposite Ralph Fiennes in Hamlet. She won the Best Actress Award at The Reims International Television Festival in 1999 for her role of Lady Dona St Columb in Frenchman’s Creek. Fitzgerald’s appeared in the West End production of The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre with Damian Lewis and Keira Knightley, and in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at the Donmar Warehouse. Since 2007, Fitzgerald has appeared in more than 30 episodes of the BBC television series Waking the Dead and played the role of Selyse Baratheon in the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Mika Simmons is a British actress and writer known for her roles in a diverse range of work on stage and screen – including television dramas ITV’s Frenchman’s Creek and Unforgotten, the BAFTA award winning Falling Apart and the ongoing role of Queen Anora in the animation game Dragon Age. In 2016 Mika played Kate in Film London’s Balcony which went on to win the Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2019 she will be seen in Dictynna Hood’s Us Among The Stones.
Jessica Webber is an actress, known for Breach (2020), Followers (2021) and #Starvecrow (2017).
Andrew Horton is an actor, known for Jupiter’s Legacy (2021), It Came from the Desert (2017) and Doctors (2000).
Camilla Rutherford is known for films Gosford Park, Vanity Fair and Phantom Thread. And the television series Rome.
Raymond Fearon is known for playing roles in The Protege; His Dark Materials; The Girlfriend Experience and Nathan Harding on ITV’s long-running soap opera Coronation Street
Joely Richardson is known for her role as Julia McNamara in the FX drama series Nip/Tuck and Queen Catherine Parr in the Showtime series The Tudors and films 101 Dalmatians, The Patriot, Anonymous, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
James Tonkin is a Filmmaker and Director of Hangman Studios, a London-based creative studio. James originally started out in music production graduating with a degree in music technology, but he soon found himself drawn into editing and directing and in 2001, backed by music management company IE Music, he setup Hangman Studios.
Sally Humphreys Wood is an actress and producer, known for Breach (2020), Fleur (2022) and 7 Days: The Story of Blind Dave Heeley (2019). She has been married to Ronnie Wood since December 21, 2012. They have two children.
Poppy Gilbert is known for roles as ‘Barbie’ in the Netflix series STAY CLOSE and the title character in the BBC One series CHLOE.
MyAnna Buring has recently been seen as a leading role on BBC One in THE RESPONDER and as a leading regular in the returning hit Netflix series THE WITCHER. She will soon be seen as the female lead in airplane hijacking action thriller 97 MINUTES.
Joanna is the statuesque comedienne behind Patsy, Absolutely Fabulous’ champagne-swilling, chain-smoking former rock chick.
Mark Oxtoby is an Award-Winning Writer, Actor and Voice Over artist. He is known for My Week with Maisy (Pre-Production), Blood Means Nothing (2019), David’s Here (2018).
Mika Simmons is a British actress and filmmaker.
French Fancy Productions is a fresh and exciting British production company, passionate about developing and producing original, thought provoking and entertaining films, to connect with an inquisitive and thinking audience.