Review: Acceptance And Prejudice Play Out In THE ELEPHANT MAN

Wednesday 22 August 2018, 7:30pm, PACT Theatre

The true story of Victorian England's medical mystery plays out in Bernard Pomerance's THE ELEPHANT MAN under Debbie Smith's direction. Friendship, acceptance and resilience are expressed whilst reminding the audience of the pervasive presence of prejudice that still lurks beneath the surface of humanity.

Centered on the friendship between Joseph (John) Merrick (Jack Berry) and Doctor Frederick Treves (Nicholas Gledhill), THE ELEPHANT MAN follows Merrick's life from the age of 22 in 1884 to his death in 1890 at the age of 27. Whilst the 31 year old Treves was starting his career as an up-and coming surgeon with the London Hospital, 'freak show' manager Ross (William Jordan) was charging people to see the greatly disfigured Merrick, who he promoted as "The Elephant Man", for the twisted sideshow style entertainment that featured in the 19th Century. Briefly studied by Treves, Merrick finds himself abandoned by his unscrupulous manager in Brussels and eventually makes his way back to London and put into Treves' care with the support of the London Hospital's judicious administrator Carr Gomm. During his stay in the hospital's care, which would become his 'home', Merrick finds religion, art and education as he seeks a 'normal' life. He gains the interest of London society after actress Mrs Madge Kendal (Melanie Robinson) goes beyond the staged meeting to befriend Merrick but despite Treves' apparent support of Merrick's desire for normality, the truth of his feelings eventually becomes clear.

Given the circus sideshow nature of where the story starts, Smith dominates the thrust stage with a central circular tiered podium. Swathes of fabric to replicate a tent hang over the stage whilst additional set items are situated at the rear of the stage. As with Pomerance's intention that the performer playing Merrick not don prosthetics to convey his condition, the places presented also require the audience's imagination with only the physicality and the text to mold the mental image.

Pomerance's work has a poetic repetition and Smith ensures these are simply presented with mirroring of movement but the play at times drags, particularly in the progression from Treves' first meeting Merrick to the eventual placement of the unwanted carnival curio into his care. This problem with pace comes not only from Pomerance's plot progression but also the performances in these scenes which are unfortunately labored. A length scene of circus performers delivers little aside from a pair of contortionists and a stiltwalker to indicate the transition to Brussels and the following introduction of the trio of 'pinheads' is unclear.

Wonderful performances however come from the core cast of Gledhill, O'Neill, Berry and Robinson as they portray Dr Treves, Mr Gomm, Merrick and Mrs Kendal respectively. Gledhill gives the successful surgeon an air of educated respectability along with compassion and humanity as he ensures that Merrick's future care and comfort is assured. He ensures this charity is layered with an air of superiority which for the most part remains suppressed but eventually rears its head, challenging both his own and Merrick's opinion of him. O'Neill ensures that Gomm is given a sensibility along with a seriousness to ensure that he is seen as a force that can serve out both positive and negative consequences. He gives the hospital administrator a gruffness but also a commanding professionalism. Robinson presents Mrs Kendal with a playfulness and an honesty to ensure that it is clear the actress has made her own decision to make friends, not needing the artifice that Treves originally engaged her for. She also ensures that Mrs Kendal stands out from the other women of the story as a confident and independent woman capable of her own thought with actions motivated by sincere affection whilst the members of the working classes saw Merrick as a figure to be feared and the society people's intentions could have been considered suspect, potentially motivated by the desire to be seen rather than honest acceptance.

Berry's portrayal of Merrick is brilliant. He maintains a physicality to express the deformities and challenges that Merrick lived with and his speaking range ensures that it is understood that whilst Merrick was around people not used to him, he was often unintelligible, but could actually converse quite intelligently with friends that took the time to get to know him. He expresses Merrick's desires and emotions, making it clear that he longed for normality along with friendship and companionship.

A generally well crafted work that reminds us that even though society has come a long way from putting people that are 'different' on show for 'entertainment', there is still an ongoing element of judgement and applying personal prejudices on other people. The presentation of some fine performances presents some new names to look out for whilst also enlightening audiences on historical events and people with the reminder that truth can sometimes be even more interesting than fiction.

THE ELEPHANT MAN

22 August - 25 August 2018

www.trybooking.com/381360

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