Rain Man
RAIN MAN Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli, May 18-July 3, 2010; tours to Canberra Theatre Centre (July 13 – July 17), Q Theatre Penrith (July 20 – July 24), Glen St Theatre Belrose (Sept 7 – Sept 18) and IPAC Wollongong (Sept 21 – Sept 25).
THE OSCAR-WINNING movie Rain Man was a huge hit for Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman; but it happened so long ago – 1988 – there’s a generation at least that has never seen it. That includes Alex Dimitriades, who stars in the stage adaptation. And it means he has no idea quite how brilliantly he transcends the narcissistic limitations of Cruise – his predecessor in the role of Charlie Babbitt, wide boy younger brother of Raymond, the institutionalised “idiot savant” – as the condition was termed in the 1980s.
The screenplay was written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass and was adapted for the stage by Dan Gordon a couple of years ago. What was in many ways a road movie with added intellectual gimmickry works surprisingly well on stage because it’s revealed as a journey of emotions, internal discovery and human relations; and the physical journey – from Cincinnati to LA via a Las Vegas casino – turns out to be incidental.
The story is that Charlie is a luxury car dealer whose business is on the edge, whose motives and methods are questionable and whose feelings are tightly guarded and, aside from deep-seated anger, are unavailable to anyone, including his girlfriend Susan (Catherine McGraffin). He learns that his estranged father has died, leaving $7m, a 1948 Buick and some prize-winning roses. Charlie’s surprise and fury that his share turns out to be the car and the shrubs is overshadowed by greater astonishment and disbelief at discovering the $7m has been bequeathed to an elder brother he didn’t know existed.
Directed by Sandra Bates with an intelligent light touch, Charlie’s reluctant voyage of discovery around Raymond (Daniel Mitchell) and his condition is plausible and deeply touching. It begins with little promise: Charlie’s motivation for removing Raymond from the institution and its avuncular director (Gary Baxter) is selfish – he wants what he sees as his half of the $7m and Raymond will be the bargaining chip.
The planned flight back to LA is stymied by Raymond’s famous aversion to flying – excluding only Qantas as he cites airline crash statistics with obsessive accuracy and detail. This sets in train the road trip across the USA during which his capacity to memorise anything and everything is revealed in a sequence of funny and amazing incidents.
It would be all too easy to caricature the character of Raymond. His range of physical and mental tics are already extreme (provoking maddening and inappropriate nervous guffaws from a couple of women the night I was there) and his mental capacity is at once superhero and weird. Mitchell has methodically researched the condition however, and also brought to bear his own smarts and sensitivity. The result is a infuriating but all too believable man-child whose brain operates at such a stratospheric level he is forced into blankness in order to survive.
The resolutely tough fragility that is Raymond’s carapace and Charlie’s febrile, uncomprehending rote masculinity are a killer combination. The two dominate the stage in an absorbing and entertaining expedition that leads gradually and tenderly to the discovery of Charlie’s heart. The play belongs to the brothers but as Charlie’s long suffering girlfriend, Catherine McGraffin contributes some telling moments, especially one particularly affecting scene where she and Raymond dance.
The simple roadmap backdrop by designer Anna Ilic, with lighting by Gavan Swift, does all it should as an indicator of the journey, but the real thing occurs on stage in a lightly sketched office, motel rooms and the facility where Raymond has lived. As it is, the focus is entirely on the people, rather than the places, and the overall result is dramatically and emotionally compelling with a few sweet laughs along the way.
