SOUTH PARK’S ELEPHANT MAN A BUMPY RIDE

SOUTH PARK’S ELEPHANT MAN A BUMPY RIDE
F.J. Hartland

            Bernard Pomerance’s play The Elephant Man relates the story of John Merrick, a man hideously deformed a by illness, who transforms from circus sideshow freak to the darling of Victorian London’s society.  The brilliance of the script is that it poetically and seamlessly moves from vignette to vignette to tell an emotional, heart-wrenching journey.

            Unfortunately, the current production at South Park directed by Vance Weatherly does not flow very smoothly and much of the beauty of the language is lost.

            There are long black-outs between scenes so the production is unable to build up any momentum.  Often, the musical underscoring overpowers the actors’ lines.  The slides which bridge the scenes are either shown too quickly to be read or are obscured by the actors moving to get into place or (as in several scenes that open Act Two) are completely blocked by scenery.  On opening night the power-point failed completely, and the slides abruptly ended halfway through Act Two).

            Adding to the lengthy black-out times between the scenes is Sean Sears’ awkward (an unattractive) set.  A platform with stairs blocks the major stage left entrance, forcing actors to climb up then down every time they arrive or exit (and some of those are done in darkness).  The other series of platforms means lengthy crosses and exits.  At the top of this configuration is Merrick’s room at the hospital.  It is so small that it virtually impossible to have any movement.  This is particularly limiting in the scene where Merrick is visited by his former manager.  This powerfully emotional scene goes dead with both characters unable to do more than shift uncomfortably from side-to-side in their chairs. 

Many scenes are played in shadows behind a curtain.  Sadly, the silhouettes are not sharp and clear, rather muddy and obscure.  This is particularly problematic in Merrick’s final scene.

There are two highlights in the production.  Both are scenes between Merrick (played by Sean Sears) and English actress Mrs. Kendall (Ursula Asmus).  As in the Victorian custom, much of the emotion is hidden underneath the conversation.  In both scenes Sears and Asmus capture the growing affection (and sexual attraction?) between the characters.  As one patron put it during intermission, “I could watch those two on stage all night.”  I agree.

Sears also does a fine job all evening capturing Merrick’s deformities and affected speech.

Clyde Adams is delightful as the bumbling hospital bureaucrat Carr Gomm.

As Dr. Frederick Treves, the man who saves Merrick and brings him to the hospital to live, Andrew Huntley is somewhat flat.  We need to see the torment in Treves that he buries under his English reserve.  All we get from Huntley is the British reserve, and The Elephant Man is really as much about Treves’ transformation as it is Merrick’s.  Treves also has the lion’s share of the lines, and Huntley’s diction should be sharper.  Much gets garbled.

Rounding out the cast are Tom Dougherty, Kathleen Caliendo and Ryan Kearney.

If they could streamline this production and bring all the scenes to the level of the ones with Sears and Asmus, South Park could open its season with a bang.

The Elephant Man continues through May 16.

This entry was posted on 4. May 2009 at 18:08 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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