The Elephant Man

Managed to catch the last show (the only one I could manage to get to). Generally agree with whatÂ’s been said.

I agree that Vivienne GlanceÂ’s performance as the actress Mrs Kendall was a highlight. Her characterÂ’s journey and the profound changes were extremely clear and moving.

The others all did their parts good justice, with a few instances of vocal clarity being the issue (the Rechabites venue is partly to blame, although some performers were clear regardless).
I didn’t find Kingsley unclear, I just found it a little strange that he affected such extreme basso voices for two of his characters (I remember he did the same for a character in “Bouncers”) and, while the actual voice is very impressive and humorous, I found it a little theatrical and it distracted me away from the sense of the character.

Tony PetaniÂ’s Merrick was great. I remember seeing brief footage of David Bowie in the 1979 production, and TonyÂ’s physical portrayal seemed of a similar calibre. He could have been a little stronger, in the dreamlike scene where he becomes the exhibitor to the doctor, to really emphasise the reversal.


...No, Leah, not picky. I too was really annoyed by the overlap of actors with the projected images, and actually REALLY surprised by how clumsy the blackouts and scene transitions were.

The projected titles gave a nice style to the piece; by themselves I would’ve accepted them as classic silent movie captions….but with actors seen standing in the semi dark, waiting, ready to go, I just got impatient with them…YES let’s GO! The captions were quick to read, so straightaway I’m looking at an actor pretending they’re not there yet (or even there but not THERE yet – wiping their nose or fiddling with a tie)…it was a weird characterless limbo that I found very distracting, and slowed the play down a lot.
There was one image I remember, where Stephen Lee's priest came out in blackout and I could clearly see him begin the scene (administering to Merrick on his knees) well before the scene actually began with the doctor's dialogue...it was interesting! I would've liked to have seen more of this overlap, without hiding it in ineffective blackouts.
Not even sure that the slide captions always gave information that added to the following sceneÂ…so maybe they werenÂ’t all necessary?
(The images of Merrick though, were great shown behind Tony, so that just by his attitude he took on the photoÂ’s characteristics.)

There were a few other awkward lighting states, with actors poorly lit, but IÂ’m prepared to blame that on the limitations of the RechabitesÂ’ rig.

The other problem with the light spillage was being able to see awkward set changesÂ…a stage manager brings out a chair and exits, only to return with a table and then an actor arrives to sit. Why didnÂ’t the actor bring his own chair, at least? It just enforced this tedious stop-start quality to the evening that never allowed a flow of pace throughout the play.

(Sorry if that sounds harsh; I’m probably still in “The Stones” mode, which made a point of virtually invisible snap-transitions; or from watching “Last Cab To Darwin” where the scene transitions were beautiful, overlapped the narrative, and were a highlight of the play. These ones kinda plodded like an…elephant…and while I could read the light and shade of pacing within individual scenes, the overall sense of rhythm of the play was ruined for me by the blackouts.)

Leah wrote:

> I felt the play never had the emotional impact it
> should have. It was restrained and beautiful played and
> directed, but it lacked conflict. I don't know if that was
> the script. I though more of the conflict should have been
> generated by the Other Doctor Guy somehow. I just had an
> impression that it was supposed to come from him but I never
> felt it. I also felt that the parade of characters talking to
> the doctor in quick sucession should also have left me
> feeling worse than it did.


My feeling was that the parade of characters became predictable in the same way the scene transitions did. We waited for a character to exit completely and then we knew well in advance the next character was about to appear. I reckon the reason was probably to do with balancing out the time needed to allow the (impressive) costume changes, but it did suck the energy out of that scene.



Having said all that, the season's over and I'm sure the crew have developed pachydermous hides. I thought it was a really interesting show and I'm glad I saw it.


One other thing...I know the show was struggling to pick up audiences, but IÂ’m aware of several people who didn't attend because they werenÂ’t prepared to pay $25 for the ticket. I was at least able to get a Blue Room members $18 concession, which wouldÂ’ve been my limit. Did they have to be so pricey?



Do I get voted off now, Amanda?


Cheers,
Craig

[%sig%]