14 October 2009 by Kevin, Robin, Duncan and Robert

We asked some of the actors of The Elephant Man if they could talk to us about the play, its characters and context and more.  We hope you find this interesting:

Kevin Lennon (playing John Merrick)

'What is interesting about playing the Elephant Man is that his movement was very restricted, he not only had the condition that made him look the way he did but he was also lame so he couldn’t walk properly.  It becomes quite restricting as an actor – in a good way – because it stops me from being able to use all of the tools available in my body.  He could only use his left hand and didn’t have any facial expressions.  It’s quite strange as an actor to have to play a scene where you can’t allow anything to register on the face, if someone tells you something that makes you happy, your face and body wants to react but he couldn’t so you have to fight against it.

What Bernard Pomerance (the writer) has done is taken a ‘freak’ in society and actually uses Merrick as a mirror to the freakishness of normal society.  By the end, the audience will be questioning what is normal and what is freakish. The Elephant Man is about the way humans behave and who they are inside, it’s about our morals, our ethics, and our ideals, rather than what we appear to be from the outside.  Merrick was a very thoughtful, intelligent person but he was judged upon what he looked like.'

Robin Laing (playing Frederick Treeves)

'A lot of it is very funny you know because it’s about how people are perceived – what you see is what you get.  You get into slightly crass territory when, just because someone’s ugly it doesn’t mean they’re not a nice person and just because someone’s good looking it doesn’t mean that they’re nice!  That sounds very ‘surface’ but that is essentially what the play’s about.  What’s on the inside doesn’t necessary always tally with what’s on the outside.  

Because of that you see a lot of silly and foolish characters trying to present themselves in a certain way and the audience may see them for what they are and whether that evokes empathy or feeling of pity or mirth at some of these foolish characters.  It’s not just a heart wrenching story there’s a lot of humour as well, we’ve spent a lot of rehearsals laughing!'

Duncan Anderson (laying a number of characters)

'The film is slightly different to the play, everybody – even my mother is so familiar with the film but when you read the play there are things that are different.  The play really takes you down other paths which I think is really exciting.  Even though the play was created first before the film, it still feels really fresh'

Robert Paterson (playing a number of characters)

'Merrick was a celebrity and as, just like today people like to be seen or associated with celebrities – he would have made the cover of Hello magazine these days, no problem.'

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