DISCLAIMER: I, Stephanie Kane, am an able-bodied, neurotypical, adult human. In this post I will be talking a lot about the representation of individuals who are physically disabled and/or neuroatypical in the arts. Although I have spent a great deal of my professional and personal life in neurodiverse communities, these are my opinions only and I do not speak for or in anyway replace the voices of people who have the actual experience of living with a disability. NOW PLEASE WATCH THIS TED TALK BEFORE WE MOVE ON: The Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance is loosely based on the true story of John Merrick, a man who lived in late 19th century England who was born with significant physical deformities, earning him the nickname, The Elephant Man. For the purposes of this post, I have chosen not to do research on the real John Merrick, including looking at pictures of him in real life or from any productions. I don't want to talk about the reality of this story because I know nothing about it, I only wish to discuss his theatrical portrayal, as published in 1979 and first produced on Broadway that same year. In the text, Merrick is described in great detail by Dr. Treves, his primary caretaker for most of the play, as follows: "The most striking feature about him was his enormous head. Its circumference was about that of a man's waist. From the brow there projected a huge bony mass like a loaf, while from the back of his head hung a bag of spongy fungus-looking skin, the surface of which was comparable to brown cauliflower. [. . .]The deformities rendered the face utterly incapable of expression of any emotion whatsoever. [. . .] The right arm was of enormous size and shapeless. [. . .] As a limb it was useless. The other arm was remarkable by contrast. It was not only normal, but was moreover a delicately shaped limb covered with a fine skin and provided with a beautiful hand which any woman might have envied. [. . .] To add a further burden to his trouble, the wretched man when a boy developed hip disease which left him permanently lame, so that he could only walk with a stick." He goes on to elaborate that his condition is a disorder, not a disease, and although they are unsure of the cause, they are positive his is not contagious, although he still struggles to find people willing to spend time with him. Due to his physical condition, it is difficult for him to communicate verbally in a way others can easily understand. Those who do keep him company and learn to understand him, such as Bishop Walsham How and an actress named Mrs. Kendal, seem to be surprised by his intellectual capabilities and ultimately inspired by his resilience in some way. In one scene towards the middle of the play, all the characters who encounter him briefly address how they see themselves in Merrick and more or less how he teaches them to be better people. If you haven't watched the Ted Talk I embedded at the beginning of the post, please do so now. This scene made me very frustrated with this play, because it seemed to be a turning point where it was no longer actually about Merrick and his internal life, which we see through out the play to be very rich and thoughtful, but about how his life affects others. Like in so many works of fiction, a character with a disability serves less as a character and more as a tool so other, able-bodied characters can grow and learn. Merrick was a real person, and regardless of whether the story is true or not, plays that choose to portray characters with physical or mental disabilities should treat them like characters, not symbols. In my opinion, Merrick is not even a fully formed character for he has no real character flaws. His faith is boundless- another classic trope, of course a person who has been let down by nature has such total faith in God- and he is a brilliant artist, painstakingly using his good hand to sketch and construct a scale model of St. Phillip's Church through out the play. He doesn't complain or lament his fate. He never expresses being disappointed that his mother abandoned him and actually keeps a picture of her with him. His only sadness is that he has never experienced love, or, more specifically, that he has never even seen a naked woman. Which honestly he has every right to be upset about! Women are awesome. He shares this with Mrs. Kendal, who is my favorite character in the play and I think is the only one that really embraces Merrick's humanity. Treves highers Mrs. Kendal, an actress, to spend time with him after failing to find a female nurse who could stand the sight of him. Early in the play he interviews a nurse who is sure she can handle it, and she says: "Let me put your mind to rest. Care for lepers in the East, and you have cared, Mr. Treves. In Africa, I have seen dreadful scourges quite unknown to our more civilized climes. What at home could be worse than a miserable and afflicted rotting black?" Ugh. I really hope this was commentary on England's past racism but honestly did it need to be included? Anyway, that nurse runs from Merrick screaming and never comes back. The dialogue when Treves explains the situation to Mrs. Kendal is much better: TREVES: [. . .] I must warn you, women are not quite real to him- more creatures of his imagination. MRS. KENDAL: Then he is already like other men, Mr. Treves. TREVES: So I thought an actress could help. I mean, unlike most women, you won't give in, you are trained to hide your true feelings and assume others. MRS. KENDAL: You mean unlike most women I am famous for it, that is really all. Mrs. Kendal always tells it like it is. So anyway the arrangement is made and Mrs. Kendal successfully makes Merrick's acquaintance and they begin spending time with each other regularly, working on his model, reading scenes from Romeo and Juliet, etc. Eventually, Merrick confides in her his wish to see a woman's body, and in what in my opinion is the most moving and impactful scene of the play, she obliges and undresses for him. Merrick tells her, "It is the most beautiful sight I have seen. Ever." Just as Kendal is swearing him to secrecy, Treves walks in, shames Kendal for revealing her body, and that is all we see of her for the remainder of the play. What I like about this scene is that in a way Merrick and Kendal are the only individuals that see each other clearly. Kendal sees Merrick as more than his body and Kendal bares her body to him willingly, not as an actress, but as herself. They both are used to being objectified by audiences (before Merrick finds himself in the care of Dr. Treves he travelled through freak shows) both professionally and as a result of their bodies. In that time, even more so than today, people with physical disabilities and women were discriminated against simply for being born in the bodies they were born with. This is your friendly reminder that if your feminism isn't intersectional, you're doing it wrong! The play continues and we find out that as Merrick's life is improving his condition is worsening and Treves is fairly certain he's going to die soon, and he does, shortly after finishing his model. Mr. Gomm, the hospital administrator, reads his obituary, and the play ends with Treves trying to add one final touch before Gomm tells him it's too late, it has already run to print. Sad. Now we're gonna stop talking about the play as a text and address the play as a produced play, which is something I usually avoid on this blog because I haven't actually seen any of them. But this is my blog and I can do what I want and this feels important. It is super fucked up that this play has been on Broadway three times, most recently in 2014, and Merrick has never been played by an actor with a disability. All three of the actors who have portrayed him (Phillip Anglim in 1979, Billy Crudup in 2002, and Bradley Cooper in 2015) have been nominated for the Best Leading Actor in a Play Tony Award. I know times have changed recently due to an increase in activism and growing intersectionality between communities that experience oppression, but black face started to go out of style in the late 1930s. Could you imagine if an actor played a character in black face in 2015 and was nominated for a Tony Award? There would be riots, because it is offensive. It is already so difficult for actors in differently abled bodies to get work. Shouldn't they be allowed to tell their own stories? Even when they do, they are often met with criticism. In 2017 The Glass Menagerie was revived on Broadway for the FIFTH time and for the FIRST time Laura was played by an actress with a physical disability, Madison Ferris. She was Broadway's first lead actress in a wheelchair. The first actress in a wheelchair to appear on Broadway in ANY capacity was Ali Stroker, who played Anna in the 2015 Deaf West revival of Spring Awakening, which to this day I am SO sad I didn't get a chance to see. Hopefully we will have more ASL inclusive options coming to our stages soon. Which reminds me, is I Am Most Alive With You still playing at Playwright's Horizons? No. It closed four days ago. Shit. Anyway, I did not personally see Madison Ferris' portrayal of Laura, but the way she was talked about was absolutely disgusting. The show opened with Amanda, played by Sally Field, helping Ferris pull herself onto the stage from the house with her arms. People called it exploitative to watch her struggle. What is exploitative about watching a woman live her truth in imaginary circumstances? If that is exploitative so is literally all acting. Neil Genzlinger observed in his NYTimes piece, "As for the charge of exploitation, I read that as, 'It was unpleasant to see Ms. Ferris pull herself along the floor by her arms; I prefer that people with disabilities remain invisible, as they so often are.'" Let's contrast this with how Bradley Cooper played Merrick. When the production trasnferred to London in 2015, Susannah Clapp described his performance in the Guardian: "He begins (no deterrent to spectators) semi-naked, as a bare-chested, bare-legged, upright figure. He lets one hip drop down so that he is lopsided. His mouth twists, slipping diagonally across his face. A shoulder hunches so that his body is bent, his head sticking forward." This is offensive. Bradley Cooper is an incredibly gifted actor, and I can't wait to see him in A Star is Born as soon as humanly possible even though we all know there will never be a better version than the 1954 version starring Judy Garland (who was ROBBED of an Academy Award for. ROBBED). But why is Bradley Cooper brave and impressive for portraying someone with a disability without any prosthetics and makeup while Madison Ferris is exploitative? Why is it that so many actors as talented as she is who live in similar bodies don't even get a chance to be seen? This is the part where I get off my high horse and tell you I'm not perfect. Like the other characters in The Elephant Man I thought about myself a lot while reading this play. Before I moved to New York I was told that I would know I've been here a while when I start to recognize members of our community who are homeless and beg on the streets or on the train. I've come to recognize many of these people and unfortunately there's a common theme. There's a man outside my local grocery store who doesn't have legs. I could rattle off plenty of other examples but there's one that always hits me the hardest. I don't see him a lot, but sometimes when I'm on the NQRW line, usually going in or out of Brooklyn, I see a man who is impossible to forget. He is a veteran and he sustains serious chemical burns. His body is probably unrecognizable from what it once was. He is very, very hard for me to look at. I find it difficult to meet his gaze. But he is a person just like me and I shouldn't feel that way. Also, our country should spend way more money helping our homeless and often mentally ill veterans and less on deploying more of them into wars that aren't ours to fight but this post is already SUPER political and I need to stop. To wrap up, I'm gonna leave you with two more Ted Talks. The first is by an actress and stand-up comic named Maysoon Zayid. She's a woman of color and she has cerebral palsy. She is also a total badass. And even though I began this post with a woman sharing her experience being objectified as "inspo-porn," we all still love to be inspired sometimes. This is my favorite Ted Talk for when I need a little encouragement. I've watched it who knows how many times and it always makes me cry. Thanks for making it to the end of this longer than usual and more emotionally charged post. I have more thoughts on this, and also about the theatrical portrayal of neuroatypical folks and people of size. While those deal with similar themes, it felt like biting off more than I could chew for one blog post.
If you want to read some plays that deal with similar themes to The Elephant Man but approach the topic in what is in my opinion a more nuanced and inclusive voice, I highly recommend Venus by Suzan-Lori Parks and and Cost of Living by Martyna Majok. Both of them feature characters with physical disabilities in settings with more agency, both are written by badass, Pulitzer Prize winning women, and neither plays have been produced on Broadway. What a surprise. THANKS FOR READING LOVE YOU ALL SEE YOU NEXT TIME!!! Next I'm reading Amadeus by Peter Shaffer. This video is all I know about that play.
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Stephanie KaneI like reading plays, drinking lots of coffee, and holding other people's Tony Awards. Archives
August 2018
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