The story of John Merrick is not a happy one, and The Elephant Man does a pretty good job of showing us just how difficult life could be for someone with extreme deformities and disabilities. Merrick could not get gainful employment due to these things and eventually ended up in the freak side show where Dr. Frederick Treves meets him at the beginning of the play. Dr. Treves is intrigued by this poor soul’s affliction and asks to take him back to the Royal London Hospital to examine him. Soon even Dr. Treves has put Merrick on display. He returns to his side show, only to be run out of London and then out of Brussels. When he returns to London, Dr. Treves’ calling card is found in Merrick’s pocket and he is summoned to come collect Merrick. Dr. Treves arranges for Merrick to stay at the Royal London Hospital for the rest of his life, so long as he should like. When Mrs. Kendall, an actress who takes a liking to Merrick, introduces him to society, Merrick becomes a sort of celebrity in Victorian London, even gaining the friendship of the Princess of Wales. While it seems like a happy ending for him, sadly he has never known romantic love and wishes he could find such a thing.
I have to admit that I didn’t expect to find Merrick’s life half so interesting, but The Elephant Man really does a good job of telling his story. So much so, that at intermission I was actually looking up John Merrick on Wikipedia to find out just how accurate the play is. It’s not too far off, which just made the second act that much more interesting to me. And fortunately, I had some very talented actors in front of me telling the story. While everyone on stage did a nice job, I want to point out some I thought were the cream of the crop.
Dr. Carr Gomm (David Lichty) was a great, down to earth, pratical character. His no-nonsense approach to life was brilliantly portrayed by Lichty. I liked Dr. Carr Gomm right off the bat, and he didn’t let me down throughout the entire show. He also got to deliver the last line of the show, which could have been done in a very cheesy way, but he did it in such an “off the cuff” manner that it really was a great ending to everything.
I also want to give some props to the ladies playing “the Pinheads” (Alyssa Emilio, Kathleen Stevens, Cathleen Nettles). Contrary to what people may think, playing “crazy” is not as easy as it sounds. There’s a fine line between believability and exaggeration, and all three walked that line very deftly. They made me uncomfortable, not because of their acting, but because of their characters. I really enjoyed them.
Gus Gustafson
However, the evening really belonged to Gus Gustafson playing John Merrick. When the lights came up on Mr. Merrick my first reaction was to the make-up. It was grotesque and disturbing (brilliant for the part), but immediately I was worried for Gustafson. It takes a strong actor to carry off such a costume, but my fears were allayed almost immediately. I was moved by his performance, felt genuine sympathy for his plight, and really wanted him to find someone to love. Gustafson could easily have let the make-up be his performance, but he didn’t. He became the Elephant Man and the costume became just a part of his portrayal. It was a job well done.
Speaking of jobs well done, I also want to recognize Craig Engel for his direction and make-up. Normally, this show is done without the prosthesis make-up and the deformities are left to the viewers imagination. However, Engel did a fantastic job on making Merrick’s deformities realistic. As I said before, they were grotesque and disturbing. Loved it.
A brief tangent, if I may: While we were living in London, occasionally we would brave the tourists and head down to Leicester Square. I loved to listen to the tourists talk when we were there. You can get a pretty good idea of how long they’ve been in the country just by how they say the name of the square. I used to openly laugh at them when they got it wrong. Terrible person, I know, but it’s one of those words that gets my attention. Why am I telling you this? Well, because John Merrick originally hailed from Leicester, England. And it was pronounced wrong. Small, small detail, but I found it very distracting and I immediately wanted to correct it. So I’m correcting it now: it is pronounced as though it rhymes with Chester – “Lester”. Not “Lye – sess – ter” or “Lye-ster”. Please, if you have a reason to talk about Leicester or Leicester Square, say it right. It will save you some grief…particularly from me. (If travelling to London soon, Southwark is another word you’ll need to figure out before going. Ask if you don’t know how to say that one either!)
So aside from being picky in my British pronunciations, what else would I have done differently? Well, here was another show that had too many blackouts and the overall pace felt a little chopped up. I tried last night to figure out exactly how I would do it differently, and I failed, so this may be more a problem with the script rather than the production. However, the blackouts were quick and changes were done swiftly and efficiently by the actors themselves, so they did the best they could with what they were given.
Overall, I thought this was a good performance of a very interesting play. I enjoyed it, and found myself wanting to know more about John Merrick. Come on out to Bolingbrook and see it. As Engel stated in his director’s notes, “allegory plays a giant role in the context of the Elephant Man” and there are many, many layers to discover throughout the evening.
The Elephant Man is presented by Theatre-On-The-Hill in Bolingbrook and runs through March 28, 2010. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors. Email theatreonthehill@yahoo.com or call (630) 759-2970 to reserve tickets.
[...] As always, there were a few things I may have done differently. First of all, I can’t say it enough: If you are going to do a show based in London (or any other major world city for that matter) you need to do your research and make sure you are pronouncing the landmark names correctly. It’s not like Welsh, which is spoken briefly during the play. There are approximately 3 million people in the world who speak Welsh fluently. The likelihood that one of them is sitting in an audience in the far-western suburbs of Chicago is pretty low. 15 million people from around the world visit London every year. There is a significantly higher chance that one (or more) of them is sitting in your audience. So please, I beg you, learn to Leicester Square correctly. It sounds like Lester. And the famous place where Eliza Doolittle was selling flowers is CUH-vent Garden with a short “u” sound, not COH-vent Garden with a long “o”. For more on this same topic, refer back to this earlier review. [...]