ELEPHANT MAN by Gary Motta

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ELEPHANT MAN by Gary Motta

2 ELEPHANT MAN

ELEPHANT MAN by Gary Motta

(This play is protected by the copyright laws. This material may not be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. The only real protection for those who make speech material available for your use is the good faith in your integrity. Thank you. This selection may be used as Performance Theatre or Reader’s Theatre. Presentation adjustments should be made to conform with requirements)

CAST OF CHARACTERS (36 total)

Mrs. Wiesenbach (a counselor) Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 Student 8 Student 9 Student 10 Thomas Norman Joseph’s Mother Friend of Mother Joseph’s Father Joseph’s Step Mother Customer Bystander 1 Bystander 2 Joseph’s Uncle Charles Workhouse Man 1 Workhouse Man 2

This perusal script is for reading purposes only. No performance or photocopy rights are conveyed. GARY MOTTA 3

Workhouse Doctor Sam Torr (showman) Dr. Frederick Treves Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man) Dr. Carr Gomm (head of London Hospital) Joseph’s Manager (a showman) Policeman Nurse Mrs. Marturin Lady Dorothy Neville Royal Attendant Princess Alexandra Prince Edward Coroner

WEISENBACH: Good morning class. Self esteem is a slippery thing, especially in the lives of young people. I’ve been counseling youth for many years and can say from experience that the percentage of students with a healthy self-esteem is small … very small. STUDENT 1: How can you tell if someone has bad self-esteem, Mrs. Weisenbach? WEISENBACH: By asking questions. If a student is honest with their answers, I can tell. ALL: Ask us! Try me! I’ll give you a straight answer! (etc.) WEISENBACH: All right. If you had the ability to change one of the seemingly unchangeable features of your life, what would it be? STUDENT 2: What kind of things do you mean? WEISENBACH: Appearance, for one. STUDENT 3: Yeh, somebody ought to change yours, Benson. STUDENT 2: Shut up! WEISENBACH: Your parents … STUDENT 4: I’ll be glad to trade mine in. WEISENBACH: Your siblings … STUDENT 3: What’s a sibling, Mrs. Weisenbach? WEISENBACH: A brother or sister.

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STUDENT 3: You can have both my bratty sisters. WEISENBACH: They feel the same way, I’m sure. (class reacts) Imagine that you were able to change the unchangeable features of your life: appearance, parents, siblings, age, your race, your nationality, even your mental capacity and talent level. If you could change any of these … would you? Think for a moment. What would you change if you could? STUDENT 4: My folks are mean. I’d really like to dump all four of them. STUDENT 5: I hate my older brother. STUDENT 6: If I could change anything, I’d make my feet smaller. STUDENT 1: Hair darker. STUDENT 2: Nose shorter STUDENT 3: I’d be sexier STUDENT 7: I’d be a blond. STUDENT 8: I’d rather be an adult. STUDENT 9: I wish I was smarter. STUDENT 10: I wish I was dead. WEISENBACH: If something came to mind, believe me, those feelings are natural. Those thoughts can help us form goals. The unchangeable things you want to change about yourself are often the very things you must learn to accept. Today, I’m going to tell you the story of a man … who had every imaginable reason to despise himself and the way he was made. His name was Joseph Carrey Merrick, but he was better known as: The Elephant Man.

(the following are dialogue lines from the story and are delivered in seemingly random fashion)

MOTHER’S FRIEND: What’s wrong with the boy? MOTHER: As God as my witness, I don’t know FATHER: Your mother is dead. She is your mother now.

This perusal script is for reading purposes only. No performance or photocopy rights are conveyed. GARY MOTTA 5

STEP-MOTHER: Here’s your gruel, and even this is more than you’ve earned! CUSTOMER: Buy a handkerchief from a freak? I should think not! STEP-MOTHER: Where’s the rest? There’s nearly a shilling missing. FATHER: Steal from your own father? I’ll beat you bloody! WORKHOUSE MAN 1: This is a workhouse. Why did ya come to a workhouse if you’re not able to work? WORKHOUSE DOCTOR: Surgery! Immediately! TORR: You’re a freak, all right. And quire a freak at that. JOSEPH’S MANAGER: What’re you to do with 50 pounds? That money is mine! BYSTANDER 1: What are you hiding under that mask? BYSTANDER 2: Whatever it is it sure does stink. GOMM: The London Hospital does not accept chronic cases. NURSE: Here is your breakfast Mr. Merr … (she screams. All react and freeze)

(if appropriate during presentation, scene changes can be indicated by music or sound, such a soft mallet on a cymbal)

THOMAS NORMAN: (as if to a friend) I can show you anything, I tell you, anything at all … from an anchor to a pin, from a flea to an elephant. Find me a fat fish and I’ll show it as a whale. It’s not the show but the tale that you tell; It’s not the exhibit but how well you tout and how loud you shout. That poor deformed boy? Just watch! (takes prominent place as if talking to an audience) Musician! Ladies and gentlemen! Gather ‘round! Did I say “Ladies?” Perhaps I misspeak. This is not for the squeamish of the faint at heart. For I tell you that behind these curtains stands the most hideous of God’s creatures. Not a man, not a beast, but both! Is he turning from man to beast? Or beast to man? This you may discover for yourselves. Come! View! Peruse! Examine! Half a man and half an elephant! Yes, for less

This perusal script is for reading purposes only. No performance or photocopy rights are conveyed. 6 ELEPHANT MAN

than a pound, less than a shilling … for threepence (pronounced “thruppens”) you may see him: The Elephant Man! (The people react and file by Norman paying their money as they go. As they pass the showman, they set their eyes on the form of Joseph Merrick, expressing a variety of responses.) Stand up! (Merrick stands with back to audience) Turn around! (he does) Behold him! (all react and freeze) MOTHER: I name you Joseph, after your father … and Carrey, after the missionary man of God, William Carrey. May God be with you, Joseph Carrey Merrick. FRIEND OF MOTHER: What’s wrong with the boy. MOTHER: I’m his mother and as God as my witness, I don’t know. It just gets worse and worse. FREIND: How old is he now? MOTHER: Six. No, seven. FRIEND: Did you have a fright when you were a carryin’ him? MOTHER: No, not that I … (the idea strikes her) Oh. Yes! It was the day of the fair. Joe had told me about the acrobats, the music and the strange animals. I just wanted to look at the animals. FRIEND: What happened? MOTHER: I’d never seen a lion or a tiger, or an elephant, so I pressed closer to the animals as they paraded through the fairgrounds. The crowd around me pushed and jostled, everyone trying to get a good view. I lost my balance and fell. When I looked up, the elephant was only a few steps away. I rolled to the side just as the elephant’s foot came down right where my head had been! FRIEND: Mary Jane Merrick, that’s why your boy is marked! You know what they say, “The fright in the womb is carried to the tomb.” MOTHER: (to audience) So that’s the story I told. I said it so often that even I came to believe it, and that’s the story I told my son when he ask: ALL: Why?

This perusal script is for reading purposes only. No performance or photocopy rights are conveyed. GARY MOTTA 7

FATHER: O God! I cannot face him. STEPMOTHER: You must tell him. Or else I will ... FATHER: No! (pause) I’ll do it myself. Joseph, your mother has been dead these many months, and I cannot carry on alone. So, I've decided to marry again. (pause) Did you hear me, Joseph? Your mother is dead. She is your mother now. CUSTOMER: Who are you? What are you doin’ loiterin’ about? What? Buy hand-kerchiefs from a freak? I should think not. Out of my way. STEPMOTHER: Late again! You sluggard! It’s about time you got home! Here’s your gruel, and even this is more than you’ve earned. Where is the day’s money, you cursed monster? Or have you already wasted it buying sweets? Lay it on the table! (she notices) All of it! I’ll not have you stealing from me! What!? Meat pie! You bought meat pie with our ... Father! come to the kitchen, now! Count your wretch’s money and ask him where it went! FATHER: Eight, ten, twelve ... All right, where’s the rest? There’s nearly a shilling missing. STEPMOTHER: He’s stolen it! FATHER: (anger rising) Where is it!? This is the last time you will deceive me. The last (blow) time (blow) you (blow) will ever (blow) steal (blow) from us. CHARLES: Joseph, as your uncle I have tried to help you as best we could. Your aunt and I are going to have a child. Yes. It is wonderful, but … it means that you must make other housing arrangements. I think you should look into a workhouse? WORK HOUSE MAN 1: He’s the strangest thing I've ever seen. WORK HOUSE MAN 2: I can’t stand to look at him … his hand, his face! And, to me, that looks like the beginning of an elephant’s trunk hanging from the front of his face ... Have the doctors had a look at him? WORK HOUSE MAN 1: I don't know, but I do know this. He can hardly do anything with one good limb out of four. I

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ask ya, this is a workhouse, isnt it? Why do ya come to a workhouse, if you’re not able to work! WORKHOUSE DOCTOR: I can’t do anything for you. I’m just a workhouse doctor, so tomorrow I’m taking you to the Liecester Hospital to see what we can do about this growth on your lip. It makes it nearly impossible to chew, does it not? So, they will take care of it. How? Surgery. Tomorrow. If you survive, you return to your work, such as it is. TORR: Thomas, I received an interesting letter from a Liecester Workhouse yesterday. May I read it to you? NORMAN: A potential partner? TORR: Perhaps. NORMAN: Read away, Sam. TORR: “To Mr. Samuel Torr, Esquire, from Mr. Joseph Merrick, recently housed at Liecester Union Workhouse. Dear sir, I have recently become aware of your establishment here in Liecester, known as the ‘Palace of Varieties.’” NORMAN: Your establishment? We own it together! TORR: Shhh! “Though I have never attended myself, I have heard that you make an ongoing search for ‘novelties’ to exhibit in this and other halls throughout England. After much consideration, I have decided to make myself available to you. I believe that you would find my form well-suited to your trade. Sincerely, J. Merrick.” What do you make of that? NORMAN: I think you oughta get on the next train to Liecester and have a look at him! TREVES: Are you Mr. Norman, Mr. Thomas Norman? NORMAN: Who’s asking, if I might be so free? TREVES: I am Frederick Treves, surgeon and instructor at the London Hospital. Just across from your ... uhhh … exhibition. NORMAN: Pleased to meet a medical man. TREVES: I’m pleased to be one, I suppose. I’ve noticed your sign ...

This perusal script is for reading purposes only. No performance or photocopy rights are conveyed. GARY MOTTA 9

NORMAN: Drawn by the best sign-painter in London. TREVES: And your fliers: The Elephant Man … Great Freak of Nature, Half-a-Man And Half-an-Elephant. NORMAN: That’s why it’s there! TREVES: I beg your pardon. NORMAN: The sign, the fliers. They’re there for folks to notice. TREVES: I see. I was wondering if I might be allowed to ... view him. NORMAN: Certainly. I open from 7 to 9, right after I have a bite ... TREVES: I want to see him now. NORMAN: Now? TREVES: Privately. NORMAN: A private showing? Now that could cost you, Governor. TREVES: My students tell me your regular fee is three-pence. I’m prepared to give you a shilling. NORMAN: Done, sir. (moves to Joseph) There he is, sir. (to Joseph) Stand up! TREVES: Dear God. (struggling for words) I had imagined him to be ... a ... much larger ... man. SPEAKER 1. Incredible. His most striking feature was his enormous and misshapen head. SPEAKER 2. A huge bony mass projected from his brow like a loaf of bread. SPEAKER 3. A bag of spongy, fungus-looking skin hung from the back of his head. SPEAKER 4. Altogether, his head was as big around as a man’s waist. SPEAKER 5. The face. SPEAKER 6. The osseous growth almost occluded one eye. SPEAKER 7. Another mass of bone projected from the upper jaw. SPEAKER 8. It protruded from the mouth like a thick, pink stump, turning the upper lip inside out. SPEAKER 9. Making it impossible for him to control his

This perusal script is for reading purposes only. No performance or photocopy rights are conveyed. 10 ELEPHANT MAN slobber. SPEAKER 10. The nose was merely a lump of flesh, SPEAKER 11. Only recognizable as a nose from its position. SPEAKER 12. The face. SPEAKER 13. It was no more capable of expression than a block of gnarled wood. SPEAKER 14. His back. His naked back was horrible. SPEAKER 15. From it hung huge, sack-like masses of flesh covered by loathsome cauliflower-like skin. SPEAKER 16. The right arm. SPEAKER 17. Was enormous and shapeless. SPEAKER 18. Covered with more of the fungus. SPEAKER 19. The right hand. SPEAKER 20. Was large and clumsy. SPEAKER 21. A fin or a paddle rather than a hand. SPEAKER 22. There was no distinction between the palm and the back. SPEAKER 23. The thumb and fingers SPEAKER 24. Were thick tuberous roots. SPEAKER 25. The other arm was remarkable by contrast: a fine and delicately shaped limb, with fine skin and a beautiful hand. SPEAKER 26. From his chest hung a bag of the same repulsive flesh. SPEAKER 27. His lower limbs were as deformed as his right arm, and that had left him permanently lame. SPEAKER 28. He could never run away. SPEAKER 29. He could barely walk. SPEAKER 30. And perhaps his most isolating and repellent feature: a stale, sickening stench. TREVES: Who is he? NORMAN: Ask him. TREVES: What is your name? JOSEPH: (barely audible) Joseph Merrick. TREVES: Joseph Merrick? NORMAN: He’s English, about 21, and came to us from a Workhouse in Liecester. That’s about all I know.

This perusal script is for reading purposes only. No performance or photocopy rights are conveyed.

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