The Elephant Man

“If your mercy is so cruel, what do you have for justice?”

This quote, from the play The Elephant Man, sent shivers down my spine. It is John Merrick's challenge, the "elephant man" himself, who is horribly disfigured and has been put on display in the circus for his freakish looks. Set in London in the 1870s, the play tells the story of Merrick's rescue by a young doctor who gives him a home and friends who genuinely care for him. It's a beautiful story that explores what it means to be human and what it means to truly respect someone. The Mason Players at George Mason University staged it beautifully, as well. Directed by Heather McDonald, their interpretation took the themes from the script and integrated them into every aspect of the play. One of the most brilliant and subtle things came in costuming, when every character had a mechanical apparatus attached to part of their costume, be it on an arm or a leg, face or foot. Every character, that is, except one: the "Elephant Man", John Merrick. The purpose of this was to emphasize his humanity. Even though society looks at him as an outsider, an outcast, unusual and deformed, The Elephant Man makes the point that John's deformity doesn’t dehumanize him. By having all characters except him be mechanized, Mrs. McDonald is pointing out that John Merrick has more real humanity in him than the rest of them. He is described as grotesquely deformed, yet Mrs. McDonald chose to have him not wear any sort of prosthetic that looked remotely deforming. For the first act of the show, he wears a white shift and normal stage makeup, which emphasizes his humanity. At first, I was indignant that I would have to spend the rest of the play imagining him a dreadful monster. But I quickly realized that wasn’t the point: the point was to help me, as an audience member, see a little more quickly beyond the mask of his deformity into the person he really was. Additionally, the strongest relationship that the John Merrick has, with Mrs. Kendall, is marked as such because she wears only a few gears when she first meets him. Afterwards, she has no mechanics on her at all. This emphasizes the reality of their relationship, and their ability to relate to each other “inner self to inner self." Mrs. Kendall, within moments of meeting him, instantly recognizes in John an incredibly perceptive and frank personality. She feels they are kindred spirits; and as the play goes on, so does everyone who knows him. In one memorable scene, every character muses over their similarities to John, pointing out the best in him and comparing it to themselves. In a way, John is Everyman, the embodiment and definition of true humanity.

Mrs. McDonald integrated rock music into the play, which sounds more odd than it actually was. The music added to the mood of a scene in a beautiful way. I've always wondered why plays don't come with a soundtrack, as well; music has such power to elicit emotion and draw you into the way a character is feeling easily. It worked so well in The Elephant Man, creating the perfect mood. The fact that it was modern instead of old-fashioned worked perfectly due to the gritty nature of the scenery and subject material.

Religion was a strong aspect in this show. Interestingly enough, Dr. Treves, the doctor who rescues John in the beginning of the play, thinks that the John Merrick embraces Jesus and his sacrifice because he thinks it is the norm of society, when the truth is no one else in the show is portrayed as religious. John isn’t a man of faith because everyone else is; he truly believes that God loves him, even when no one else does. John finds comfort in the fact that God loves him even when everyone else he knows flees from him. As the play progresses, he builds a model cathedral, trying to capture the beauty he sees when he looks at the real cathedral. The slow construction of this cathedral is a ticking clock, counting down the time John has before he dies. When the final piece crowns the cathedral, John cries, "It is finished!": the same words Jesus cried on the cross before his death. This is the last line John says before he dies.

Ironically, the more comfortable and integrated with society John Merrick is, the closer he progresses towards eventual death. His body cannot sustain him anymore; his head is crushing his windpipe. When he dies, all of the characters are onstage, standing still and silently, looking straight forward. He gives them each a silent farewell, showing how he individually touched each of their lives. After they return the salute, they slowly sink to the floor until they are lying down, eyes closed, "asleep." There are several different interpretations of this, but an important one is that he puts them all at rest, makes sure they are at peace, before he is at rest. He dies alone, when no one is watching; after being watched by masses at a circus for all of his life, after being constantly on display, he dies alone and quietly.