Did I Stutter? Don’t Miss Geoffrey Rush at BAM

In at BAM, Geoffrey Rush doesn’t just walk the line between eccentricity and insanity – he prances, skips, leaps and dances it.

Rush delivers an exhilaratingly charismatic, physical performance as Poprishchin, a low-level clerk plagued by insignificance in this stage adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s short story. His animated, gangling form rebounds off the diminutive, fizzing Yael Stone (the only other actor in the play), whose comic antics as Poprishchin’s boarding-house maid, among other roles, match Rush in a brilliantly choreographed kind of attic pas-de-deux.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Australian theater company Belvoir’s production is how extremely funny a play about madness set in Tsarist Russia can be. Rush’s every expression, genuflection and inflection stirs near constant hilarity for much of the play, amplified by Stone’s cawing of English vocabulary and two stage-side musicians who provide spot-on sound effects (as well as a live score).

Most of the drama takes place in Poprishchin’s attic room, where he retires after a day in St. Petersburg’s cinder-block offices to write his diary before the meager candle sputters out. His vivid imagination manages to transform the feeble occurrences of his day into captivating exploits, but it’s not long before his pitiable reality of hopeless love, poverty and public ridicule pitches him into paranoia and despair. He imagines dogs talking and himself elevated as the King of Spain, resulting in his removal to an asylum, the only place society can make room for him.

Fantasy at first saves him from bleak circumstances but, without love, money or purpose to tether him, his imagination overwhelms and destroys him.

After the humor of the first two-thirds of the play and the sympathy that Poprishchin generates, the asylum segment is a serious downer, and the lack of laughter is painfully evident. Thankfully, Poprishchin’s demise isn’t drawn out any longer than it has to be. Rush (who is, as it’s probably news to no-one to point out, up for an Oscar during Sunday’s Academy Awards for his role in “The King’s Speech”) doesn’t let the audience leave on a downer, taking his bows in character by skipping and weaving hand-in-hand with Stone up the aisles, in and out of the wings and back across the stage.

It’s not the plot or the poignant subtexts that make “Madman” unmissable, but the stellar performances and clever grace notes. Wordplay abounds, the musical interjections are delightful, and no detail is superfluous. Even Rush’s lurid lime eyeshadow becomes a sight gag when Poprishchin mentions being “green-eyed” with jealousy. More sadly, when Fifi the dog bites him on the nose, the cut’s bloody line smears into a round, red blotch, transforming Poprishchin quite literally into a clown.

In one of the maid’s many humorous mishandlings of English, which Poprishchin teaches her bit by bit, she confuses “no’s” with “nose.” The “no’s” assault Poprishchin constantly in the form of rejections and refusals, even down to the lack of dumplings in his thin soup, and the world’s rejection of him is the play’s pivotal axis. 

In the face of this, Poprishchin’s ability to say “yes” for as long as he does is a reminder of the power of the imagination to save. It’s just heartbreaking that there’s no-one to say it back to him – at least, not in his language.

“The Diary of a Madman” continues through March 12 at the BAM Harvey Theater. Limited tickets remain; call 718-636-4100 for information