NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, Sept. 19.
PORT ANGELES –– Now exhibiting: a phenomenon not seen before!
Deformities to puzzle the finest minds of medicine!
“Nobody has ever actually encountered a disorder like this,” actor Sean Peck-Collier said.
“And it’s absolutely fascinating.”
Tonight and for the next three weekends, “The Elephant Man” will be on display at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse, 1235 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
The Port Angeles Community Players will stage the tale of Joseph Merrick — called John Merrick in the script — the man born with a disease that severely deformed his face.
The production, directed by Ron Graham, opens the players’ 62nd season.
“The Elephant Man” takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Tuesdays, and at 2 p.m. Sundays, today through Oct. 5.
“It’s an intense show,” said Graham. “It’s a poignant show.”
“This man who was so deformed people actually beat him in reaction to seeing him on the streets. This man that was so reviled in so many ways and had so many awful things happen to him.
“And he had one of the most beautiful souls.”
Channeling that soul in the lead role is Peck-Collier, a veteran of Peninsula theater. He turns Merrick into a spectacle by twisting his body into contortions that can be painful to watch.
“Doing this role: I can feel it in my muscles,” Peck-Collier said.
“It’s all physicality. It’s an amazing thing to see,” added Graham.
The theater company has enlisted a massage therapist to care for the actor.
Abandoned by his parents in the Victorian Midlands of England, Merrick put on freak-show tours across England and Europe, and ends up in the Royal London Hospital under the care of Dr. Frederick Treves.
With earnest care, Josh McLean portrays the doctor.
In the hospital, Merrick reveals his mental capacity and eventually, with the help of George Wood’s affably corrupt hospital governor Carr-Gomm, begins to bring in researchers, royalty and revenue.
His status as cause celebre draws the attention of Madge Kendal, the premier Shakespearean actress of her day.
Embodied on the playhouse stage by the winsome Anna Andersen, Kendal uses a warm touch to bring a romantic connection to the shunned Merrick.
Graham places Peck-Collier center stage for much of the play, with the actor alone in his hospital dungeon. He builds a paper model of the adjacent St. Philip’s Church as street scenes play on around him.
The staging, the director said, was designed to give the viewer perspective on Merrick’s struggle with normalcy while others around him try to fit him into an abnormal world.
“Their efforts were to give him a normal life – to make him a ‘normal’ human being,” Graham said.
“There is no such thing as normal. Normal is a fraud.”
Tickets are $12 for adults or $6 for students in advance at Odyssey Books, 114 W. Front St., Port Angeles, at www.PAcommunityplayers.com and at the door.
As is traditional, however, remaining tickets will be $6 at the playhouse door on Tuesday nights. For information, phone the Community Players at 360-452-6651.
