THE ELEPHANT MAN by Bernard Pomerance
Plays about historical figures rarely cast new light upon the figures or ourselves. Bernard Pomerance, an American living in London, has written a drama about a historical freak that movingly does both.
John Merrick (1863-90) was so monstrously deformed that beside him Caliban might seem shapely. His head had the circumference of a normal man's waist, and the bone structure occluded one eye and twisted his mouth into a slobbering aperture. A spongy cauliflower-shaped mass on the back of his head and other body growths gave off an odious...
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