IS DIARY OF A MADMAN ON THE NOSE?

IS DIARY OF A MADMAN ON THE NOSE?

What do Russian writer Nikolai Gogol and Geoffrey Rush have in common? At the very least, a notable proboscis and a noted proboscis-philia.

In Gogol’s most famed satirical short story The Nose, a facial protuberance abandons its owner, a St. Petersburg official, and develops a life of its own. In The Diary of a Madman, one lowly clerk’s descent into insanity is marked by many things, not least of which is the theft of his nose in a dream – by Fifi the dog. Clerk Poprishchin also imagines biting off the nose of his sneering ‘fat maggot’ superior, Mikhailov. Throughout, noses are referred to as lumps on smug faces, as sneezing like everyone else (certainly not made of gold). They are both lowly, common (everyone has one) – and a source of social standing, of superiority (a haughty nose in the air). It turns out this  fascination is not such an anomaly; in 1820s and 30s Russia the translation of Laurence Sterne’s novel Tristram Shandy prompted a literary movement known as nosology, marked by surrealism, social status, and ruminations on daily life.

And what of Geoffrey Rush? On one peculiar fan blog, a French woman with a penchant for proboscises effuses: “I want the long sharp nose of Mr Geoffrey Rush!” In his role as the harried theatre producer in Shakespeare in Love, a torturer demands his nose be cut off after he announces the Bard’s new play: a comedy. Certainly, no less a nose, no less an actor, could’ve tackled Gogol’s Madman.

It’s not the first time, of course. This production at the Belvoir marks the reunion of Rush and outgoing director Neil Armfield – a theatrical union that has yielded fruits like the Marriage of Figaro, the Alchemist and Hamlet – “Grubby dirt-in-the-corner-of-the-room-type classics,” says Rush. Since the original 1989 staging, Rush has gone on to win an Academy Award (for Shine), set-designer Catherine Martin has also been nominated (for numerous Baz Luhrmann productions), and Neil Armfield has had a stronghold on Sydney’s best theatre. It smacks of a high-school reunion – with all the mystery and effervescence of youth replaced with maturity and expectations.

Maturity sits right with The Diary of a Madman. Gogol’s gothic antipathy bears no optimism. A young Geoffrey Rush, while no doubt brilliant, could not have embodied the sublime pathos of Poprishchin on the edge of despair and insanity as he does today. This performance more than atones for the other more staid elements of the production – with the direction and set design seeming a little stuck in the 80s. As he elfinly bounces around the stage, riffing on puppy epistles and his love for the unattainable, dove-like daughter of a senior official, Rush is Gogol’s nose itself – cut loose, with a creative life of its own long after the plagued Russian writer was laid to rest, face down, in Danilov Monastery.

Until Feb 6, limited tix available Jan 2- Feb 5, Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills, $32-42, 9699 3444, belvoir.com.au

You May Also Like

Comments are closed.