Displaying items by tag: Gracie Wallace

An exceptionally good show is now on stage at Chicago’s Trap Door Theatre. This wonder—The Man Who Fell with the Rain— has been translated through three languages on its way to the footlights in its U.S. premiere, right here on the tiny stage on Cortland Ave.

Originating in Spanish as a children’s tale by Columbian Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, it was turned into a script by Andrei Kureichik, a Belorussian playwright, then translated to English by John Freedman. All that before being adapted and directed by Kay Martinovich for a perfect and very cogent rendering by the Trap Door players in its U.S. premiere.

The Man Who Fell with the Rain hews closely to Marquez’s original short work, “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings: A Tale For Children,” while playwright Kureichik has unpacked the important details touched only lightly in the original. It becomes truly theatrical as we watch the story unfold that Marquez charted.

The script brings us an Old Man With Enormous Wings (Richard Cotovsky) who is discovered unconscious in the backyard of the Husband (Dan Cobbler) and the Wife (Laura Nelson). The couple also happen to have a two-week-old baby in their house, and a nosy know-it-all Neighbor Woman (Emily Lotspeich) is certain the winged creature is an aging angel who was intending on taking the baby. Her advice: beat him to death with a cudgel.

The cast of The Man Who Fell with the Rain at Trap Door Theatre through September 26, 20206

The couple take pity on the Old Man, and instead place him in their chicken coop, intending to keep his presence a secret. But word gets out and neighbors, and then spectators descend on their abode. The Old Man has regained consciousness and the couple try communicating—but he speaks only his own unknown tongue. Neighbors speculate on what to do with him, suggesting vriously to put him over the military and end wars; or make him a governmental magistrate; perhaps put him out to stud to generate a winged human master race.

The local Priest (Keith Surney) is called in, since the Old Man seems perhaps to be an angel, but there is nothing in the doctrinal books that explains the possibility of an aged, injured angel. So he writes his bishop, who writes his primate, who will then write the Pope for guidance. As this lengthy process continues, and the crowds grow, the couple decides to charge admission for a look at the Old Man.

Laura Nelson, Dan Cobbler, Emily Lotspeich, and (foreground) Richard Cotovsky in The Man Who Fell with the Rain. 

Marquez and the playwright Kureichik provide us a scenic display of society, and the human comedy that so readily arises in its waters. The convoluted religious hierarchical pronouncements delivered by the Priest extend the fun of this strange state of affairs. Other characters arrive, including a girl who has become a Spider Woman (Gracie Wallace), all natural to the magical realism that is Marquez’s stock in trade.

Yet this show is not played for broad comedy. The story line and gradual revelations unfold with restraint. And it is the performances that director Martinovich has drawn from these performers that make this show stratospherically good.

Most memorable for me are two performances: Richard Cotovsky’s Old Man, whose mostly silent acting is magnetic as he quietly gets his bearings and increasingly engages the neighbors and spectators. And Emily Lotspeich’s Neighbor Woman, who is so perfectly recognizable from life. She moves from one certainty to another and always speaks authoritatively, even as her previous pronouncements have proven false. She knows, for example, that this Old Man should be fed a dangerous chemical which she supplies for $50—”Angel food is not cheap!” she declares.

When the Old Man goes dormant and the couple thinks he has died, she advises on his burial: cut off his wings, fold them over him, place a ring of 49 candles around him, then burn him. Despite her certitude, they decide to use a hot branding iron on the Old Man, and he immediately rises and flaps his wings. For his part, the Priest brings only questions, not answers, from the church. They are adsked if the Old Man has a navel, for example, to determine if he is human rather than angelic.

Yes it is a rather dark children’s tale. The Brothers Grimm are also dark, in the original text. What a fairy tale can do is describe to children (and grown-ups) the inexplicable behavior of adults. And the resolution of the play is positive and very satisfying. The townspeople are left as the Old Man found them, and we expect nothing changes, no one learns anything—just like real life.

Highly recommended, advanced ticket sales had driven an extension of the run of The Man Who Fell with the Rain even before opening night, but make haste. The extended run ends September 26, 2026 at Trap Door Theatre at 1655 W. Corland in Chicago.