The Elephant Man

Forget the David Lynch movie version of the story of the horribly disfigured John Merrick – in this stage version, it is the dramatist’s instruction that Merrick, the ‘Elephant Man’ himself, be played without prosthetics or special makeup, relying on the actor’s skill and the audience’s imagination to provide his grotesque deformities. Fairground freak shows may not be acceptable today but we have our own form of voyeurism in exploitative television programmes that pander to the same feelings.

This play makes us question those feelings as it explores Merrick’s story through dramatic story-telling – at times harsh, sometimes humorous but always engaging and compassionate.