CdA actor makes ‘Rappaport’ a success
Something special is happening on the Spokane Civic Theatre’s Main Stage. There you can witness a national-class acting performance by Ed Cornachio in the lead role of Herb Gardner’s funny and poignant “I’m Not Rappaport.” The Civic has a reliable pool of fine local actors, but Cornachio’s performance is of a different magnitude. At the risk of hyperbole, I can’t imagine anyone playing Nat any better – and I saw Harold Gould originate the role at the Seattle Rep in 1985.
Nat is a marvelous character in any good actor’s hands.
Nat is a talkative old man who hangs out in Central Park and spins marvelous tales about his life as (1) a covert operative, (2) a crusading labor lawyer and (3) a Hollywood mogul.
He is, of course, none of the above. As Nat himself says, he spent most of his 80-plus years living one life, and now he wants to spend his last few years living hundreds. Cornachio, a Coeur d’Alene resident and retired California transplant, nails every single line-reading.
By that, I mean he understands the intent of Gardner’s dialogue and delivers the line in a way that best communicates that meaning.
However, he goes beyond that. He also manages to convey overtones that go beyond the literal.
When he attempts to con his own grown daughter by spinning an extravagant tale of a late-in-life romance with a beautiful young scholar, Cornachio conveys layer upon layer of nuance.
He shows us Nat’s alarming deviousness; his semi-admirable ability to improvise a line of bull; and his completely admirable ability to immerse us in his fiction. We really wanted to believe that an Israeli army sergeant was his love child. Beyond that, Cornachio’s body language is brilliant. He brays at his own jokes, head tilted back. He shuffles stiffly around the stage. He sidles up confidentially to complete strangers. He does a hilarious bit with sunglasses and scarf as a Mafia don.
Bryan Jackson is also effective as Midge, the other main character. In stark contrast to Nat, who wants to be the center of attention at all times, Midge is an elderly building superintendent who wants to lay low and cause no trouble. This role is automatically less dramatic, yet Jackson does a good job of making him come alive. On Saturday night, his performance was slowed by a certain hesitance in delivering a few lines.
The best supporting performance came from Jacqueline Davis as Clara, Nat’s daughter.
She takes Clara’s two less-than-endearing qualities – filial condescension and exasperation – and somehow turns them into sympathetic traits. Director Rick Hornor keeps the pace fast and the laughs flowing. He manages to make this one-set, no-action play fairly zip by. He made a misstep or two in casting, but he more than made up for it by casting Cornachio.
If my memory serves, the script itself has been streamlined since that 1985 Seattle world premiere. Midge’s role has been lessened and the play is now focused on Nat.
That was a wise choice.
This play is not really about Midge. It’s certainly not about “Rappaport,” a character in Nat’s favorite vaudeville routine.
It’s about Nat, and that’s especially true when Cornachio plays the role.