The Frankenstein monster, for instance, is a paradigm of the rejected child, and the project in many horror films-like that in Aristotelian tragedy-is to interrelate dread of the horror object with a sympathetic recognition of his, her, or its essential humanity. The film’s critique of the latter is conveyed almost entirely through Freddie Francis’s dark, sharp, black-and-white cinematography-a claustrophobic and depressing view of the Industrial Revolution as a circle in Hell the script (by Christopher DeVore, Eric Bergren, and Lynch) deals in affecting but comparatively oversimplified terms with the nature of man and the power of love.īoth the film and the play force their audiences to consider the relations between inner and outer being, though the film-at least on the script level-does not push much beyond the insight that Merrick is “not an animal” but “a human being… a man.” Lynch’s only previous film, the cult hit Eraserhead, deals like The Elephant Man with the problem of the painfully unacceptable child, and in both films Lynch has appropriately had recourse to many of the themes and devices of classic horror film. The play, however, provides its audience much greater insight into and respect for Merrick’s extraordinary mind and deals at length with the philosophical parameters of Victorian ethics.
THE ELEPHANT MAN SCRIPT PLAY PROFESSIONAL
In both the film and the play, Treves agonizes over whether he has advanced his own professional reputation by putting Merrick on display in what might amount to simply another class of freak show in both, Merrick’s hand-built model of a nearby cathedral is a prominent symbol of his aspiration, drive, and luminous skill. In the hospital Merrick was visited by many of the leading lights of Victorian society, who were moved by his rare intelligence and sensitive manner of expression. Frederick Treves, who arranged for him to live in London Hospital until his death a few years later. Merrick was a hideously deformed young Englishman who was discovered in a sideshow by the anatomist Dr. Since the film was not based on Bernard Pomerance’s play of the same name, but draws on many of the same historical materials and case studies, it cannot properly be examined as an adaptation instead, the specific decisions made by Pomerance and Lynch on how best to tell their respective stories of John Merrick reveal something about the basic terms and strategies of theater and film, and those distinctions in turn provide a clue to what The Elephant Man, as a film, is trying to accomplish. Joseph has such an incredible story and I can’t wait to go on this journey and bring him to life.Not since Shakespeare called for “a muse of fire” in Henry V and Olivier provided the light of an arc-rod projector has there been such an interesting opportunity to examine the relations between film and theater as David Lynch’s The Elephant Man. This is such a special role and a challenge for any actor. Heaton, who plays Jonathan Byers in Netflix smash Stranger Things and recently wrapped on 2019 Marvel pic The New Mutants, said, “I’m extremely excited and honoured to be given the opportunity to take on the portrayal of Joseph Merrick in the BBC’s adaption of The Elephant Man. In 1980, David Lynch famously directed John Hurt in a haunting classic which won BAFTAs for Best Film and Best Actor and scored eight Oscar noms. Treves brought Merrick to the hospital where he lived until his death in 1890, aged 27.Īmong the many performers to portray Merrick have been David Schofield, David Bowie, Mark Hamill, and most recently Bradley Cooper in his West End theatre debut. He met Treves in 1884, after the doctor had witnessed Merrick being exhibited in a shop across the road from the London Hospital. Seeking to escape the workhouse several years later, Merrick found his way into a human oddities show in London where he was exhibited as ‘The Elephant Man’. When he was 11, his mother died from bronchopneumonia, his father soon remarried and by 17 he was a resident of the workhouse after his relationship with his father deteriorated. Born in the UK city of Leicester in 1862, at the age of five he began to develop physical deformities to his skin, face, arms and feet. The iconic Merrick has been the subject of countless medical studies, screen and stage performances.
THE ELEPHANT MAN SCRIPT PLAY SERIES
The series will be filmed in Wales with transmission due next year with additional casting under way.
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