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“There are loads of parallels between the experience of Joseph Merrick and the place of disabled people in society. In an interview with Beddard about the Bristol Old Vic production, he described Pomerance’s play as resonating strongly with present times: The Elephant Man breaks new ground by casting disabled actor Jamie Beddard in the role of John Merrick. The orderlies turn Merrick around to afford us a good view, and the better for Treves to demonstrate this “profound and unknown disorder”.įrom the hospital, it’s back to the freak show with Merrick.

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In lecture mode, Treves delivers the findings of his examination, describing his specimen in dead-pan, bedpan style, leaving nothing to the imagination, sparing no one’s sensibilities.Ī head the size of a fat man’s middle lumps of stinking, squidgy veggie-like skin hanging from the back a pink stump sticking out of the mouth. Two orderlies hold him by the wrists and ankles, to maintain his verticality.

He’s stark naked, apart from a pair of regulation X-ray grade underpants. Scene 3, and Merrick (Jamie Beddard) is brought on.

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Treves would like to borrow this so-called “half-man half-elephant creature”, for verification purposes, in the interests of science. The next time we see Treves he’s bargaining with the fast-talking (a bit too fast at times) freak-show proprietor Ross (Micky Dartford).

Thus we’re introduced to the man credited with saving Joseph Merrick from exploitation and degradation. The action starts with 31 year old Frederick Treves (Alex Wilson), a gifted and self-assured surgeon, arriving at The London Hospital in Whitechapel Road, to take up his post of lecturer in anatomy. The whole show is captioned, which, as someone with (even) moderate hearing loss, means being able to access all the dialogue.Ī solo cellist plays hauntingly throughout. Photographs of Merrick are displayed on banners. The episodes are brief and impressionistic, using minimal scenery and props.

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Presented through a series of snapshots unfolding chronologically, the play’s twenty one scenes depict some of the key events in the last six years of Merrick’s life.

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Photo by Mark Douetįirst previewed in New York in 1979, Bernard Pomerance’s Tony award-winning The Elephant Man tells a remarkable and sad story focussing on the life story of Joseph Merrick (1862-1890), after he embarked on a career as a professional exhibit on the traveling freak show circuit. Kendall splendidly reflects Merrick’s unfolding trust.Company and Jamie Beddard in The Elephant Man at Bristol Old Vic. Pierson brings out the man’s dignity and sardonic humor but could work harder to suggest his pathos and pain: there’s more to the Elephant Man’s suffering than a scoliotic posture and hobbled gait. Almost self-effacingly saintly as Merrick, John R. Merattic’s production values need work–props like the poster for the Elephant Man and the Saint Paul’s replica look like the work of an autistic child, and the production badly needs a sound design–but the accents, emotions, and ideas are clean if not powerful.ĭarin Toonder’s persuasive Treves is every inch a Victorian of upright rectitude, but the character could unstiffen more as Merrick claims his humanity. Matthew Dion’s revival honors Pomerance’s eloquent and impassioned script. Kendall, adept at illusion, knows that Merrick’s hideous face is just that–a mask for an outcast hiding dreams as big as his scale model of Saint Paul’s church. Frederick Treves, Merrick’s overprotective guardian, views him as a medical mystery, the actress Mrs. The ultimate outsider, Merrick is a mirror reflecting the worth of those who see his value. In only 80 minutes playwright Bernard Pomerance turns a penny-dreadful plot–the short, cruel, crowded life of John Merrick, a severely disfigured “elephant man”–into an exploration of our humanity. THE ELEPHANT MAN, Merattic Theatre Company, at Chicago Dramatists Workshop.