Extra Credit: Elephant Man

During my Thanksgiving break, I went to New York City and saw a play entitled Elephant Man. The play itself was based on a true story of Joseph 'John' Merrick. John Merrick lived around the late 1800s in England, and suffered from a genetic disorder that caused his body around his bones to have growths and tumors, with the exception of his left arm and hand, although he was never officially diagnosed. The play tells a story of a small segment of his life, and death. After being displayed around in a traveling circus-like environment, he was disregarded, and ended up in the care of a scientist named Frederick Treves. Treves helped Merrick obtain a special circumstance of permanent residence at the hospital, and the two became close friends. Merrick's intelligence far preceded his looks, and attracted the eye of many wealthy and powerful people. The play shows Merrick's relationship with Treves and several other people and the impact of science, religion, sex, and conformity effect on an individual(s). Due to Merrick's condition he was forced to sleep sitting, as the weight of his head was too heavy. Merrick died, trying to lie down regularly, from asphyxiation.

For the purposes of this blog post the story is important, as performance of Merrick is extremely relevant to the class. The play began with Treves' explanation Merrick's condition. Bradley Cooper, who played Merrick, stood next to Treves' character. As Treves' explanation continued Cooper's stature became more and more disfigured and peculiar. Cooper himself did not have any makeup to disfigure his face, he was forced soley to rely on performance, which I feel is extremely relevant to our idea of what performance entails. Cooper forced himself into an bent slant, forced his fingers in an uncomfortable position to portray a lobster-like hand, and spoke with a peculiar accent with odd mannerisms of his mouth and body. Being able to contort his body, and perform this multiple times a day, many days a week is extremely taxing on the body as Cooper has said on several occasions.

From this play, I learned how much it physically takes to authentically perform in a piece. I witnessed a reminding example of how caring deeply for the subject matter can enhance performance. As Bradley Cooper was a major force in making this play possible, it would appear he is emotionally invested in the performance of it too. A performance's authenticity relies heavily on the actors/actresses ability to form a connection with the subject matter and their willingness/ability to accurately portray a character, fictional and non-fictional.

 Linked is an article from the New York Times on Cooper's performance, as well as a Wikipedia article on Merrick:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/theater/bradley-cooper-gets-ready-for-the-elephant-man-on-broadway.html?_r=0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Merrick