‘Rain Man’ play faithful to film’s storyline
Print Edition
ACADEMY Award-winning movie Rain Man (1988) has been adapted for the theater under Georg Malvius, and is playing at the Shanghai Drama Arts Center.
The stage adaptation follows the general storyline of the original film, with Xu Shengnan taking on the lead role of Charlie Babbitt, portrayed by Tom Cruise in the film.
Charlie, a young professional struggling with his business in Los Angeles, hears of the death of his estranged father and travels home to Cincinnati, only to find that his father has left everything to an older brother he never knew he had, leaving him only a vintage car and some prize rosebushes.
The brother Raymond, played by Jiang Ke (Dustin Hoffman in the film), is an autistic savant who never forgets anything and can calculate at rapid speeds, but who also requires strict routines to stay calm and has difficulty in forming relationships or communicating.
“Rain Man” tells of how Charlie abducts his brother in an attempt to gain some of the inheritance money and save his business from going under. The pair then connect and learn more about one another in classic American fashion: on a cross-country road trip.
Moving road trip indoor
Film screenwriters Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass also act as the playwrights for the stage edition, preserving all the essential elements of the narrative. Unlike the film, which is set primarily outdoors against the American landscape, making the road trip aspect of the plot more prominent, the play moves the action indoors.
Stage designer Ellen Cairn works with many simple, translucent set pieces which reflect both the innocence and purity of Raymond’s inner world as well as Charlie’s loneliness and simmering anger.
Jiang’s portrayal of Raymond is more lighthearted and lovable in the conventional sense than Hoffman’s in the film, and the play as a whole seems to contain slightly more comedy than its source. But with the brother relationship at its center, “Rain Man” still possesses a tender undercurrent throughout.
“Through this play, I hope we can raise public awareness of autistic individuals, as well as give them more help and love,” says Malvius. While the show is running, an exhibition has been set up in the lobby of the Drama Arts Center for audience viewing, filled with art both made for and by autistic children.
Date: Through July 27, 7.30pm
Venue: Shanghai Drama Arts Center (288 Anfu Rd)
Tickets: 80-280 yuan
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
