Pomerance also takes pains to make sure we are not ourselves attracted to a freak show. That answer, of course, is ourselves. The most appealing plays are the ones that act like mirrors. This, The Elephant Man achieves because, surface sympathies notwithstanding, it does not pass judgments. The search for what is good, and normal, is universally slippery and perilous.
False pieties can gain no foothold.
David Travis's staging rightly centers itself on its two principal performances. Representing Merrick onstage is never a matter of special effects. To create him naturalistically, Pomerance insists, would divert from the storytelling. Merrick comes across as sensitive, wise and endearing. His most devastating observations are allowed to float like storm clouds.