The Elephant Man returns to the Barn Player’s stage tomorrow night. Shake off your Fringe Hangover and check out this profound piece of theatre. This is a dream role for me and I am so excited to get back to it for the next couple of weeks. There are some great performances happening and I’d be honored if you joined us.
Tickets are available at the door or here. Performances run Fri-Sun until Aug 14th. With a special Industry Night on Monday Aug. 8th. Sunday shows at at 2pm, all others at 7:30pm.
A blogger/actor/theatre reviewer Christopher Elston, who has some very in-depth personal experience with The Elephant Man, joined us last week. He had some great things to say about the show: “I’m very pleased to say that The Barn Players met my standards and even exceeded them at some points in a very powerful and poignant piece of storytelling.”
Please read his full review here. You can also read about his journey discovering and studying The Elephant Man here. It is a very interesting read.
Below is a snippet of Christopher’s review discussing the challenges of the Elephant Man role:
I consider the role of Merrick to be one of the most difficult and grueling an actor can undertake. Not only does the actor playing the role need to be unbelievably versatile to handle the complexities of the character, he must also adopt an awkward and demanding body language to communicate the infirmities of Merrick. With that being said, Coleman Crenshaw does extreme honor to the role.
Crenshaw certainly did his homework as he understands Merrick right down to the ground. His physicality was tremendous, though he needs to keep that body language in mind at all times. He made some movements that would either have been impossible for the real Merrick or done only with excruciating difficulty. That quibble aside, his interpretation of the dialogue blew me away.
Crenshaw’s delivery is so nuanced it almost staggers the imagination. With incredible ease, he captures Merrick’s innocence, wit, genius, fears, awkwardness, and goodness. And he does it with a clogged and slobbering speech that still retains flawless diction. His evolving of Merrick from frightened creature to bold man over the course of the show is a tour de force …
Thank you Christopher for the gracious review!
Coleman Crenshaw 