I was invited * last night to see Rainman at New Theatre Cardiff. When Z was diagnosed a few people told me he’ll be like rainman, this didn’t make any sense because of course I’ve never seen the film!
All I knew was a man found out he had a autistic brother.
The stage was set with back lights and a nice light brown coloured floor. I think the floor really set it off, made it look more professional! A very easy to look at stage which through the production was all you really needed.
We learn that Charlie played by Edward Speleers is a manager in the car trade with his girlfriend Susan played by Elizabeth Carter, he has a call to say his Father has died so off he goes to the funeral more so to find out about his share of what he’ll get of his fathers fortunes, there’s no love loss, a few memories are shared of the house and his imaginary friend rainman to his Susan.
After getting nothing but the roses in the garden and a car he was furious and went to find out why and who had the rest.
We meet Raymond, played by Mathew Horne, I think to act as if you have autism must be very hard, yes you can learn lines, he repeats lines but to constantly rock back and forth, hold his head at an angle and constantly spin a card must have been very hard and he played it well. Maybe it was just me as an autism parent but I loved the line of cards on the bed! Autism and lines kinda go hand in hand!
Charlie wasn’t happy that a retard had all his fathers fortunes when he had no concept of money, so kidnapped his brother for half of the money he as owed, and ended up taking him to count cards to save his ass!
I loved the way the change of scenes played catchy 80’s music.
When they are at the hotel Raymond being out of routine is starting to struggle, he wants his certain food at a certain time, Charlie just keeps swearing at him and saying this is it now get over it. There is no understanding of his brothers needs at all. He’s quite harsh to him, and you can clearly see he’s using him for the money.
The sex scene, I wasn’t expecting this! My mate said she can remember it from the film but last night it did seem to go on for a while!
What got to me was the first meltdown we saw where Raymond hit himself, the audience laughed, there were a few parts they laughed maybe living this day in day out has taken the laughter away from something I may previously seen as funny? Was it supposed to have been funny and I didn’t see the funny side?
The connection the two brothers made by the end was just lovely, you could see the way Charlie had changed, he’d learnt to love his brother for who he was and not just for money. He choose what was best for Raymond, with the promise he would have scheduled visits. The relationship the both actors had you could see were really worked hard on. At the end of the show Mathew Horne announced how they had worked with mencap on some of the scenes and you could see he’d worked really hard on trying to be autistic.
I did enjoy it, maybe for different reasons than others, ok Z doesn’t have a sibling, but these were brothers not known to one another so in effect we’re strangers, so if a stranger can actually fall in love with the person regardless of their needs there’s hope there yet. There was quite a bit of swearing that doesn’t bother me I was just a little surprised! Unless that’s what Charlie is like in the film!
You can get your tickets here and prices start from £16. The show is running from Monday 10th to Saturday 15th 2018.
* This is a #sponsored post and I was gifted my tickets in return of a review.
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