Reviews:
Iron Age Theatre has some things in common with its current production, The
Elephant Man – the saddest of which is that no matter how beautiful it is inside, relatively few people will take the opportunity to find out.
It’s their loss.
Art is beauty and beauty is truth. This is the story of The Elephant Man. For at least 15 years, Iron Age Theatre, under the direction of John Doyle and Randy Wise, has presented challenging, well-crafted, thoughtful theater.
Their actors are well prepared, understanding their characters and their characters’ actions on multiple levels, from mundane to philosophical. The sets are crafted with a care and attention to detail far beyond what should be expected from the company’s relatively meager budgets.
For all the credit and pride Iron Age and the Cultural Center can take in this renaissance, they should reserve their greatest satisfaction for the quality of the productions. The Elephant Man is a worthy addition to the Iron Age catalogue.
This production inventively uses the devices of vaudeville and melodrama to evoke the troubled life of John Merrick, who was born deformed due to Proteus Syndrome and made to live as a grimy sideshow freak.
Wise and Doyle choose not to use makeup on their Merrick, Jered McLenigan. The burden then is on McLenigan to provoke the audiences’ imagination and get them to realize the hideousness of Merrick’s features while substantiating the beauty of Merrick’s soul. His efforts are an unqualified success. McLenigan’s performance is subtle as opposed to brutal, dignified as opposed to freakish, naïve as opposed to cynical, and accepting as opposed to pitying.
Wise’s set is evocative and imaginative and is well accented by Kate McLenigan’s wonderful paintings.
Susan Paige Lane gives a brave and sensitive performance as Lady Kendal.
Bernard Pomerance’s script for The Elephant Man is more philosophical than biographical. This production matches the intellect and vigor of the script.
Jim McCaffrey
Main Line Newspapers
It is salutary that Jered McLenigan, who plays Merrick, gives the best performance, and that the second best comes from Susan Paige Lane, who portrays the actress who reaches out to Merrick and is the one person in the play's account who does not use him for selfish purposes. McLenigan's contortions and thickened speech successfully suggest the misshapen Merrick, and his portrayal has soul and feeling, especially in his dealings with Lane's sympathetic and understanding Lady Kendal.
Douglas Keating
Philadelphia Inquirer
Return to
the 
Home Page
October 29, 30, 31,
with
Victorian Web - A Comprehensive look at Victorian Culture