<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Engaging Our Cruel and Fragile Standards of Humanity<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></B></DIV>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal align=center><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">By Tom Wachunas</FONT></DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In his eloquent program notes for the Players Guild production of Bernard Pomerance’s play, “The Elephant Man,” director Craig Joseph is greatly aware that the play presents no clear answer to the question, “Can John Merrick be made more human, more like us?” <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place w:st="on">Merrick</st1:place> was a 19<SUP>th</SUP> century English man so grotesquely deformed that he became a circus sideshow curiosity. The attempt to make Merrick “more human” became a driving force for a while in the life of Frederick Treves, the surgeon who rescued and befriended him, providing him a permanent home in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">London</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Hospital</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. But as Joseph points out, the play presents deeper, more complicated questions as to just what constitutes being human, normal, or beautiful, and who, exactly, defines as much. And the very efficacy of attempting to make Merrick “more like us” progressively unravels into exposing the motivations and judgments – far more ugly than <st1:place w:st="on">Merrick</st1:place>’s physical appearance - of a flawed society. </FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Additionally, Joseph appreciates the power of metaphor – visual and conceptual – to illuminate the heart of this story, and uses it to great effect. The spare set functions as both tented carnival and “civilized” hospital quarters, with interchangeable, double-duty props, like a trunk that becomes a bath tub. Scene changes are orchestrated in much the same manner that the acts at a circus follow each other in quick succession (Joseph’s stated intent), effectively making us wonder who the real clowns, misfits, and “freaks” might be in this scenario.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That effect is further enhanced by the double roles of the cast members, all of whom constitute as gifted and impressively versatile an ensemble as I’ve ever seen gathered on this stage, right down to their varying English accents. Gregory Rininger’s portrait of Ross, the manager of the traveling freak show, is chillingly gritty and cruel, while as Bishop How, he’s a gently dogmatic religion teacher. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Travis Brown plays Carr Gomm, hospital administrator, with convincing dignity and authority, contrasted by his brief but startling appearance as a brutal policeman. Jacki Dietz, Margie Stocker, and Maria Work are electrifying as the slow-minded and bizarre carnival “pinheads” (victims of a head deformity known as microcephaly), as well as the privileged women
who lavish attention and gifts on <st1:place w:st="on">Merrick</st1:place>. Maria Work’s portrayal of Mrs. Kendal, who introduces <st1:place w:st="on">Merrick</st1:place> to the world of high society and feminine anatomy, is riveting in its struggle between her own superficiality, insecurity, and emerging compassion. In one of many heartrending scenes, after being rehearsed by Dr. Treves to shake Merrick’s “beautiful” and “good” hand, she shakes his deformed hand instead, leaving him overcome with tears.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s that kind of very special pathos that is threaded throughout Pomerance’s writing, and so successfully translated here by Nate Ross as Frederick Treves, and of course, Ryan Nehlen as John Merrick. The chemistry between the two characters de-volves from real tenderness - tempered by Treves’ expectations for Merrick to conform to rules of etiquette and other “standards” of societal thinking - <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>into a volatile, confrontational crisis of conscience for Treves. Ross’s performance is genuinely captivating as we witness his confidence<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>dwindle into frustration and anguish over Merrick’s deteriorating condition amid questions about God and the true measure of a human being.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Meanwhile, I think Nehlen’s delivery of Merrick ranks among the most passionate and heroic performances to grace a <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canton</st1:place></st1:City> stage in recent memory. True to the playwright’s desire for the character to have no special makeup or gimmicky costume, Nehlen deftly presents <st1:place w:st="on">Merrick</st1:place>’s terrible affliction in the form of nervous speech stutters from contorted lips, an awkward, elongated gait, twisted neck, and incessantly blinking eyes that can nonetheless freeze and focus with searing sharpness as he speaks his agile mind. None of these perfectly interwoven quirks interferes with the clarity of his words. His tone has a remarkable range that powerfully communicates his disarming honesty, along with his acute sense of
mercy, humor, and irony.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One of the play’s most striking metaphors for searching out answers to his condition is that of <st1:place w:st="on">Merrick</st1:place> one-handedly constructing a model of St. Philip’s Church. He says he regards a church as an imitation of grace, and that his model is in turn an imitation of an imitation. To Treves’ observation that humanity itself is just an illusion of heaven, <st1:place w:st="on">Merrick</st1:place> quips that perhaps God “should have used both hands.” Still, as he finally places the last piece on his model – the steeple with shining cross on top – he declares, in haunting (and surely not accidental) reprise of Jesus’ last words from the cross, “It is finished.”</FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But for us, is it? This is truly great stage literature, and sublimely presented here. As such, the story continues to resonate long past its fast-paced 21 scenes. With urgent, intense relevance to a world still unreconciled to its purposed soul, <st1:place w:st="on">Merrick</st1:place>’s story remains, tragically enough, still fresh.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“The Elephant Man” shows at the Players Guild William G. Fry Theatre, located in the <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Cultural</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType> for the Arts, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Canton</st1:City></st1:place>. Through March 13, at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $10 at </FONT></FONT><A href="http://www.playersguildtheatre.com/"><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">www.playersguildtheatre.com</FONT></A><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> or call (330) 453 – 7617.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For other reviews and commentaries by Tom Wachunas on the performing and visual arts in the greater <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canton</st1:place></st1:City> area, please visit his blog, ARTWACH, at </FONT></FONT><A href="http://www.artwach.blogspot.com/"><FONT color=#800080 size=3 face="Times New Roman">www.artwach.blogspot.com</FONT></A><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></DIV>
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