The Diary of a Madman

With rigorous charm, the superb Geoffrey Rush enacts the delusional grandiloquence of a clownish Russian clerk in this stage version of Nikolai Gogol’s 1835 short story, directed by Neil Armfield. The play sets you up to laugh at a deterioration that is finally harrowing, and as the clerk spirals into chaos, Rush remains in total control. He treats his performance as the tour de force it is, and he takes you into his confidence.—Adam Feldman