All That Chat - re: The Elephant Man is a beautiful production

HOME ALL THAT CHAT ATC WEST COAST SHOPPIN' RUSH BOARD FAQS

LOGIN REGISTER SEARCH THREADED MODE

not logged in

Threaded Order | Chronological Order

re: The Elephant Man is a beautiful production

Posted by:	AlanScott 06:49 pm EST 11/20/14
In reply to:	re: The Elephant Man is a beautiful production - Michael_Portantiere 12:14 pm EST 11/20/14

Spoiler below for anyone who may be wanting to avoid them: I don't think that Pomerance necessarily wanted the lines and situations to be played as cool so much as he wanted a very unsentimental point of view to pervade. He particularly objected to the choice for Mrs. Kendall to extend the hand that would force Merrick to extend his deformed hand in response for her to shake it upon her departure. But I believe that in general he wanted the play to be performed in a more Brechtian (there's that word again!) style that would keep the audience at a bit more of a critical distance, while not necessarily having the performances eschew emotion. But finding any comments of his on the production seems to be difficult, and I hope I'm not improperly conveying what he felt. I'm not sure just how public he made his issues with the production, which was far more successful than the earlier production of the play in England (which was more in line with what he wanted) had been. But I do think it was written about it at least a little at the time.

reply to this message \|

All That Chat is intended for the discussion of theatre news and opinion
subject to the terms and conditions of the Terms of Service. (Please take all off-topic discussion to private email.)