'Good for Otto' a dark gem

‘GOOD FOR OTTO’: (left to right) Rileigh McDonald, Rhea Perlman & Ed Harris. Photo: Monique Carboni

GOOD FOR OTTO 
Written by David Rabe
Directed by Scott Elliott
The New Group
The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
480 West 42nd Street
(212-279-4200), http://www.TheNewGroup.org

By David NouNou

There are no easy answers or solutions in this riveting new David Rabe play. Unlike another drama also set in a mental institution, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there were boundaries and parameters there. It was the patients (rebellious or not) and their treatments. Here, the door is wide open. Mr. Rabe not only shows the daily process and routines patients go through; we also get the perspective and ordeals doctors face each day. It is not always the patients that need help because people forget and don’t realize that doctors face dilemmas and ordeals on a daily basis with multiple patients.

Set in a rural Connecticut mental health center, the patients not only come with their baggage but also the shame. There are a variety of patients and two doctors: the head doctor, Dr. Michaels (Ed Harris) and his co-worker, Evangeline Ryder (Amy Madigan). Besides the daily visits with patients there are also two additional elements that these doctors have to face: the bureaucracy of insurance coverage and their own personal doubts if they are doing the right thing or not.

The cast is an incredible, cohesive ensemble and they all shine; from Ed Harris and Amy Madigan as the doctors who work off each other like a precision watch to the patients among them: Bernard (F. Murray Abraham), an older gentleman who can’t get out of bed; Timothy (Mark Linn-Baker) who lacks social skills and is distraught that his hamster Otto needs serious surgery; Alex (Maulik Pancholy) who has issues about coming out as a gay man; Jimmy (Michael Rabe) who killed himself because the gun told him to; Frannie (Rileigh McDonald), a young girl having problems dealing with constantly being put in foster homes and harming herself; and Nora (Rhea Perlman), the latest foster mother who has problems just dealing with Frannie on a daily basis.

These are only some of the patients and problems; they all have issues and need saving and in the center of the mix are the doctors who face these challenges on a daily basis with their flaws and misgivings. Director Scott Elliott meets these challenges head on. He makes sense of a script that is at times hard to comprehend, especially the scenes with Dr. Michaels and his dead mother (Charlotte Hope) and her interaction with other patients in the facility. It is not an easy task, but Mr. Elliott helps us see the patients, the doctors, bureaucracy and the pitfalls.

The play is not an easy sit-through. However, the storyline is always compelling, the characters are engaging and the ensemble acting is glorious. This is good theatre but not for the faint of heart.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 8, 2018
Reviewed at March 3, 2018 press preview performance.