Atmospheric set, amazing acting bring this unusual drama to life in B’ville

By Russ Tarby

Contributing Writer

Who has seen the likes of this before?

So inquires the title card for Scene 3, and the answer is few. Certainly nothing like “The Elephant Man” has ever before been seen in Baldwinsville.

The play, penned in 1979 by Bernard Pomerance, recalls the real life of Joseph “John” Merrick, a Victorian-era British bloke suffering from a horrifying rare skin-and-bone disorder. After being repeatedly beaten in a London workhouse where he lived as a youth, Merrick became an attraction in a Whitechapel Penny Gaff sideshow and even toured the continent billed as the Elephant Man.

A social outcast who smells bad and looks monstrous, Merrick’s life changes when young surgeon Frederick Treves agrees to care for him.

So begins the Baldwinsville Theatre Guild production now running through Oct. 8, at the First Presbyterian Education Center. Directed by veteran William Edward White, who was nominated for a Syracuse Area Local Theater Award for his helming of “The Bad Seed” for Encore Productions back in 2011, this play comes to life onstage thanks to a brilliant scenic design by Navroz Dabu and insightful — sometimes incredible — acting performances throughout.

The two-tiered set evokes a darkened view of 19th century Whitechapel, with the physician’s study complete with a human skeleton set high at stage left symmetrically opposed to a rear projection screen framed by an institutional archway at stage right. The screen displays scene-change title cards, freak show posters and shocking photos of the real-life Merrick.

Dabu’s aptly atmospheric set is complemented by Sarah Anson’s delicate lighting design and Karen Greenfield’s careful painting. White and his producers wisely decided to do without the florescent house lights, darkened and replaced by twinkling string lights, perhaps to suggest the dim interior of the Penny Gaff where Merrick had been displayed.

In the title role, actor Alan Stillman does the impossible, embodying the deformed man without a hint of prosthetic makeup. Instead he twists his limbs and contorts his mouth, adopting distorted physical poses which must leave him sore after every show.

Despite the role’s obvious difficulties, Stillman manages to make Merrick a smart and sensitive soul, with a wit sharp enough to indulge in subtle sarcasm. When Dr. Treves — well-played by Benjamin Sills — comments that God created humanity as an illusion of heaven, Merrick — who uses his one good hand to build a model of a cathedral — quips, “God should have used both hands.”

Other performers also excel here. Binaifer Dabu simply shines as Mrs. Kendal, an actress who befriends Merrick and introduces him to London high society. Her scenes with Stillman are especially tender, as when Merrick bemoans his lack of female company.

While costume designer Kate Kisselstein didn’t have much to do with Merrick, who spends most of the play in a diaper or a hospital gown, she goes whole hog with Mrs. Kendall and her hoity-toity friends. The actress is bedecked alternately in a gorgeous lavender ensemble, a shimmering red velvet suit and a blue satin jacket.

Similarly, Kisselstein adorns Princess Alexandra, played by the lovely Jaclyn Matthews, with a bejeweled tiara and a shimmering bib necklace, and tops each of three pinheads — a wildly weird Greek chorus played by Matthews, Beverly Poznoski and Korrie Taylor — with tiny toy crowns.

Simon Moody, one of the most gifted and experienced actors on the Syracuse scene, tackles two roles, the freak show impresario, Ross, and the hospital administrator, Carr-Gomm. Moody differentiates these two by carefully adjusting his British accent. Carr-Gomm speaks with proper Oxford pronunciation while Ross, the cockney barker, sounds like a real East Ender.

There’s a message underlying White’s choice to double-cast Moody in these disparate roles. One of the play’s dominant themes is man’s inhumanity to man, as illustrated by Merrick’s life. How different is it, really, between being forced to make a living as an oddity in a Penny Gaff, or as a high-class curiosity in the hospital? Although he is a celebrity visited by royalty, Merrick remains immensely lonely.

How different is Ross from Carr-Gomm? Both men — one lower-class proletarian promoter and one upper-class gentleman — build their careers upon Merrick’s wretched circumstances. In this way, as Moody portrays both men, we are reminded there’s not much difference at all. One way or another, established systems are designed to take advantage of the misfortunates among us such as the Elephant Man.

“The Elephant Man,” produced for BTG by Josh and Korrie Taylor, continues at the First Presbyterian Education Center, 64 Oswego St., at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1; at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2; and Oct. 7 and 8. Tickets cost $20, and $15 for seniors at the Oct. 2 matinee only; dessert and coffee included; 877-8465; baldwinsvilletheatreguild.org.