By DIANA BARTH

BROOKLYN, N.Y.—Actor Geoffrey Rush had just finished a matinee of Gogol’s “Diary of a Madman” and took the stage again with colleague and director Neil Armfield for an Artist Talk.

Rush, born and bred in Australia, remarked, “We had no role mod-els in Australia. Not when I was a young man, anyway. But in the ’60s and ’70s, they began to form a state theater.”

Armfield interposed, “To create a character, to act in front of an

audience is a mystery.” Rush had always been fascinated

by clowns. “I saw tent shows and vaudeville when I was 8. There was no tradition in theater, but Austra-lia did have a tradition of clowns in TV.”

He admits to being a great fan of Warner Brother’s cartoons and silent films. “But there were no of-ficial drama teachers.”

Rush later went to Paris and stud-ied clowning with the noted actor and mime trainer Jacques Lecoq. “Lecoq was a genius. His practices changed my life; it was a study of the human condition. He taught many styles including commedia,” Rush said.

Armfield helped form the noted Belvoir Street Theatre in Australia. There he worked on many shows, including “Exit the King,” which was a major Broadway hit not long ago and garnered a Tony Award for Rush.

Rush always wanted to stop filter-ing theater through the English tra-dition. In a production of “Twelfth Night,” the three actors playing Sir Andrew, Maria, and Sir Toby Belch broke tradition and really let them-selves go. “We tried to find the heart of the play,” Rush commented.

“I don’t believe in cutting off the audience from the players. There’s something special in three-dimen-sional playing.” Rush wants contact between the audience and actors, to create something engaging and entertaining.

Remarking on makeup, he said with a laugh, “In my late 30s, I used to create ‘old’ makeup. Now I blot my skin to look more youthful.”

When an audience member que-ried where he got his tremendous energy, Rush stated, “Some people say, do you do Pilates? Do you do yoga? No, I do this show.” He went on, “But really I think it’s from my mother’s genes. She was a great jiver, a great dance partner.”

He’s always been a rep actor. “I love the thought of doing ‘Lear’ at night [and] a clown during the day.”

As to how he developed the role, which he first played 22 years ago: “It evolved. I read a lot of Gogol to find character elements. The cos-tumes by Tess Schofield were won-derful; they also helped.

“There’s an irreverence here, which I like. I’ve seen four or five performances in my life that just blew me away. I saw Harvey Fier-stein in ‘Hairspray.’ It was like a great Comedie Francaise performance.

“I love American audiences. They get everything. And look at this the-ater.” He pointed to the somewhat ramshackle Harvey BAM. “It’s so artfully decrepit.”

He added thoughtfully, “Long ago I read Moss Hart’s ‘Act One.’ It was an eye-opener about the theater.”

Diana Barth writes and publishes New Millennium, an arts newsletter. For information: diabarth@juno.com.

March 4, 2011Theatre The Epoch TimesB2

Call 917-642-1056

Cracked Screen? Laptop Broken?Get your laptop or screen repaired for as little as $125!!!Quote “Epoch Times” to get 15% off ALL products & servicesProfessional Computer Repair – 235 East 25th St. New York, NY 10010 www.nettechpcsolutions.com

CALL 212 725 6633 AND GET IT FIXED NOW

By JUDD HOLLANDER

BROOKLYN, N.Y.—In a perfor-mance tour de force of the highest order, actor Geoffrey Rush offers a hilarious and tragic example of one man falling into the abyss of insan-ity in Nikolai Gogol’s “The Diary of a Madman.”

The piece is adapted by David Hol-man, with contributions from direc-tor Neil Armfield and Geoffrey Rush, and is set in early 19th century St. Petersburg in Russia.

Rush plays Aksentii Ivanovich Poprishchin, a pompous Civil Ser-vice Clerk of the Ninth Grade whose main job seems to be sharpening quill pens. Rather poor, with his coat becoming threadbare, he lives in the attic of a rooming house, his evening meal consisting of something pass-ing for soup. His one companion is Tuovi (Yael Stone), his landlady’s Finnish servant, who continually tries to communicate with him de-spite the language barrier.

At first Poprishchin’s daily mus-ings, which he writes in his journal, are the complaints of a man unhappy with his job, his living conditions, his landlady, and so on. All this changes when he spots a beautiful woman en-tering his place of business, who he learns is Sophia (Stone), the daugh-ter of his employer.

Desperately trying to learn more about her, he tracks Sophia’s move-ments incessantly (some might call it stalking), eventually overhearing her dog, Medji, talking to another canine named Fifi. Soon after, he realizes Medji and Fifi are writing letters to one other.

Determined to uncover what the dogs are corresponding about, Po-prishchin steals their letters and learns about Sophia’s impending marriage. He also discovers there is major unrest in Spain, the throne there having suddenly become vacant.

It’s not long before Poprishchin re-alizes he is actually the King of Spain and must begin making preparations for his return to power.

Rush has a field day with the role (sometimes breaking the “fourth wall” and interacting directly with the audience), showing Poprishchin as a man continually developing the-ories, conspiracies, and possibilities to fit the delusions in his mind.

The actor’s movements are a won-der to behold. He’s often in frantic motion, and even when sitting down,

one can feel the pent-up energy struggling to get out.

As things progress, Poprishchin’s actions become more outrageous. He has only occasional instances of reflection and sanity, making those moments all the more powerful and poignant. One such moment occurs when he realizes what Sophia thinks of him. At the same time, Rush is able to evoke both feelings of pity and sympathy for the character, a man seeking the truth about what is going on around him, although he is unable to realize facts obvious to everyone else.

Stone assumes three roles in the story, though only Tuovi has any real sort of characterization, and works well in all. She adds humor and hys-teria to the proceedings, as well as a bit of protectiveness as Tuovi, and some stark terror in another role later on.

Neil Armfield’s direction is won-derful, giving Rush free rein to take Poprishchin to the edge, with movements that go from walking to prancing to moving almost ethere-ally at points. The two men worked together on this play in Australia in 1989.

Just as important to the production

are musicians Paul Cutlan and Erkki Veltheim, who add various musical flourishes and commentary to the proceedings, ones to which Rush often reacts.

One interesting question the play asks is just how much insanity re-sides in each of us. This point is brought home when we see news-papers crammed floor to ceiling in Poprishchin’s room. He is either a very learned man or one who ob-sessively collects things—a point worth pondering in this exemplary production.

Judd Hollander is the New York cor-respondent for the London publication The Stage.

THREADBARE CLOTHES: (L-R) Geoffrey Rush as Aksentii Ivanovich Poprishchin and Yael Stone as Tuovi, his landlady’s servant, appear in Nikolai Gogol’s “The Diary of a Madman.” now at the BAMHarvey Theater. stephanie berger

WALLS AND NEWSPAPERS: Descending into madness, Gogol’s protagonist Aksentii Ivanovich Poprishchin capers about the set designed by Catherine Martin in “The Diary of Madman,” stephanie berger

‘The Diary of a Madman’BAM Harvey Theater

Brooklyn Academy of Music651 Fulton Street

Brooklyn, N.Y.tickets

718-636-4100or www.BAM.org

running time2 hours, 10 minutes

closesMarch 12

Case study in insanity

‘The Diary of a Madman’

Artist Talk With Geoffrey Rush

CLOWNLIKE MAKEUP: Geoffrey Rush as he appears in Gogol’s “The Diary of a Madman.”stephanie berger