“The Man Who Fell with the Rain” reviewed by Jacob Davis

*** Suppose ET, the Iron Giant, or the infant Superman had been found by adults who were cynical and selfish, but not very intelligent. That’s the premise of The Man Who Fell with the Rain, an adaptation written by Belarussian author Andrei Kureichik and translated by John Freedman of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” Trap Door Theatre’s new production, directed by Kay Martinovich, plays up the comedy of what happens when a winged elderly man who seems to be senile crashes to the ground on a remote farm. Over the course of eighty-five minutes, the village’s inhabitants make fumbling attempts to exploit something they cannot understand, or even appreciate, in anything other than a totally self-serving way.

The Old Man (Richard Cotovsky) falls during an intense thunderstorm. This is witnessed by the Husband (Dan Cobbler), who is weary of this inexplicable event, but distracted by the illness of his son. The Wife (Laura Nelson) is more overtly hostile, and suspects the Old Man of being connected to the plague afflicting their house. She asks the opinion of the Neighbor Woman (Emily Lotspeich), who knows everything, meaning that she always speaks with great confidence. The Neighbor Woman immediately identifies the Old Man as angel and claims that there is a big rebellion going on in Heaven. This does nothing to resolve whether he is an angel in the good graces of the Lord or not, but the baby’s illness passes, so the couple decide the Old Man cannot be all bad. (The Husband also didn’t have it in him to outright kill the Old Man, despite the Wife’s and Neighbor’s insistence.) Weeks go by and the Old Man is still no more capable of communication than when he first seemed concussed, so the couple keep him in a chicken coup where they at first try to keep him a secret, but then start charging pilgrims to look at him.

The townspeople have different ideas about what it all means. The Priest (Keith Surney) attempts to crowd-source an explanation while pretending to lead the people to an authoritative explanation, but receives no useful guidance from them or from his superiors. He is amicable to a proposal by another neighbor (Carolyn Benjamin) to breed the Old Man and create a race of winged people, but this effort is thwarted by gridlock among the other villagers and the Husband’s fear that this would be inhumane. Some people want to make the Old Man a general, but the government  takes no interest in him. The Neighbor Woman wants him for herself, but is deeply embarrassed by this or fears she will lose him and mostly attempts to incite violence and awe in equal measure. Eventually, the people’s attention turns to a Spider Woman (Gracie Wallace) being shown by a traveling circus. She offers genuine kindness to the Old Man, but cannot change his predicament.

Kay Martinovich’s ensemble all have comedic chops, but the highlight of the show must be Cotovsky’s performance as the mostly silent Old Man. Fans of storefront Chicago theatre may remember Cotovsky as the artistic director of Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company or from the many times he played the driver in Hellcab. He comes across here as an innocent, albeit a mischievous one, and my perception of the overall play was shaped by my interpretation of his character as having amnesia or dementia. Keith Surney’s Priest is, in my view, the play’s most tragic figure, demanding reverence while keenly aware of his inability to meet the moment, irrationally hostile toward a random member of his congregation for no reason, and seemingly not even knowledgeable of his own faith. (It is entirely lost on him that his participation in the plan to forcibly breed the Angel replicates the sin of Sodom.) Emily Lotspeich as the Neighbor Woman is also a stand-out, as her eloquence and wild imagination allows her to shape pretty much any situation to her advantage. Lotspeich doubled as the costume designer, which also helped communicate a rich understanding of character.

I hesitate to claim the play prescribes any specific moral, despite its parable-like structure. At slightly less than ninety minutes long, it massively expanded its half-century old source material, yet is still open-ended. The play’s society comes across rather negatively; only the Old Man and the Spider Woman are presented with consistent sympathy, although the Husband and the Priest both privately confess their vulnerabilities to the Old Man. Despite finding my own interest fading along with the town’s, I did enjoy the show’s humor and the thought experiment of how people respond to something miraculous when no further information is forthcoming. Kureichik’s adaptation may be a jaded take on a story premise that is common in media for young people, but I think most viewers can get something valuable out of it.

The Man Who Fell with the Rain will continue at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W Cortland Ave, Chicago, thru September 26, at the following times:

Thursdays: 8:00 pm

Fridays: 8:00 pm

Saturdays: 8:00 pm

There will be an additional performance on Sunday, September 17, at 7:00 pm including a talk back after the performance with the playwright.

Running time is eighty-five minutes with no intermission.

Tickets are $25. Special group rates are available Visit Trap Door Theatre or call 773-384-0494 or email boxofficetrapdoor@gmail.com

To see what others are saying, go to Theatre in Chicago and click “The Man Who Fell with the Rain.”