Change Your Image
gotham22365
Reviews
The Elephant Man (1982)
The Difference
I think this was almost as good as the stage version itself, and is so much more powerful than the make-up dependent film. I guess it requires audience intelligence and imagination (unlike the movie), but the wonder of Pomerance's play is that every one watching can create their own deformities on the character, making it a personal nightmare.
This is also based not on things Joseph Merrick wrote, but on the journals of the doctor. It is not about deformity (like the film) but about the choices society makes and the illusions society preserves. Dr, Treves' vision of his life, his work, and his world is profoundly altered by the experience described, and he is our "point of entry" - so our vision is changed as well.
A fantastic piece of work overall.