By RICHARD EDER LEPHANT MAN that haunting parable about natural man trading his frail beauty and innocence for the protectron and prison of society has made a splendid move to Broadway Bernard Pomerance play with IIS array of performances opened last night at the Booth Theater It sur vrves its transfer from its earlier show with no dilution of 1l'.S character If any thing rthasbeenstrengthened While as the de- formed innocent rs as remarkable as ever Carole Shelley witty and pas- sionate performance as the actress who reaches out to him has grown even more exuberant And as Treves, the idealistic doctor who bestows the pro- tection of upon the de- formed man and comes to realize tragically how destructive his phrlan thropy has been Kevin Conway has turned a fine performance into a tower mg one The Elephant Man after which the play is named was a real person who lived in the latter part of the last cen- tury. Hideously deformed, with spongy excrescences growing from his face and body, he was rescued from a freak show and taken into a London hospital. There, thanks to the devotion of his doc- tors, and an effective publicity carn- paign, he became an object of public in- Blockcd due to See full page lmagc or m1crof1lm Based on Real Person THE ELEPHANT MAH. bv Bernard Pomerance. Dl- rected bv .lack setllno bv David Jenkins costumes bv Julie Weiss bv Beverly Lem- mons production stage manacer Pat De Rousle Presented by Richmond Elizabeth I McCann and Nelle Nugent associate producers Rav Larsen and Ted Snowdon. Al the Booth Theater 45th Street west of Broadway Frederick Treves Kevin Conway Carr Gomm Richard Clarke Ross. Bishop Walsham How and Snort I M. Hobson Anollm Plnheod Mariner London Policeman. will Earl and Lord .lohn John Plnhead Miss Sandwich Countess and Princess Alex andre Cordis Heard Mrs. Kendal and Plnhea-d Carole Shelley Droerlv Dennis Creoohan David Helss has at the start He becomes an inter nal captive energ rs channeled as he srckens into completing the model ofachurch Art for Mr Pomerance rs a substitute for the natural grace that welosernlivrng Weaving through this grave and af fect parable are a series of lighter stran There are the representatives ol Bntish society who come to visit the patient andthe freak show ernpresano who betrays him at the start and re- turns frurtlessly to beg for help at the I Hobson plays three of the auxrl tary characters, each in a totally differ- ent style and with equal dexterity. He is an orotund bishop, who discharges his rolling phrases like cannonades, set- tling his ponderous upper lip back in place after each one. He ls a bitter des- perate braggart as the ernpresarlo, and a sweetly meditative hospital porter. ater He haflt Ilkn ens . ing at the Theater of St. Peter*s Church . .. . . . I end. terest and something of a social lion as well. Mr. Pomerance has used this figure to construct an image of the unspoiled natural man. Like the Kaspar Hauser in Werner Her-rog's film, whom he con- siderably resembles, John Merrick has an uncomfortably pure sense of the good, an instinctive religious aspira- tion, and a style of thought so unspoiled and direct that he is continually sabo- taging the tutored assumptions of his protectors. The deformity is used not for its own sake but to separate the protagonist from the society he encounters. Mr. An- glim suggests this deformity without makeup. Instead he uses disciplined but fluid contortion of his body and a thickened, halting quality in his speech. Onstage he is a spirit strug- gling ln chains, and the effort gives his lines a transforming energ. And what lines they are. He is always looking at things either at startlingly close range or at a startling distance. When a nurse hired to tend him flees shrieking from his ugliness he simply thanks Treves, who has taken the precaution of holding on to the tray, for saving his lunch. When the hospital authorities, deter- mined to protect him from intrusive curiosity, discharge a porter for star- ing, he seems not to notice the at- tempted kindness. "If your mercy is so cruel, what must your justice be like?" he asks. His innocence manages to put in question all the assumptions, the order, Kennbuncan Philip in a scene from "The Elephant Man." the power of a society - the Victorian - that considered itself to have abol- ished once and for all the age-old di- chotomy between doing good and doing well. And yet, like Lear's fool, he is helpless and terrified of being dispos- sessed from the protection that has beenglven him. Treves, played by Mr. Conway with bluff, bursting energy, is a sincere moralist and a sincere success. He is a brilliant doctor and destined for big things. He shows total conviction as he, the Victorian missionary, gradually teaches the Elephant Man to conform to the habits and expectations of soci- ety. But Mr. Pomerance has not given us a prig. Treves is gradually possessed by the magical innocence of his patient, even as the patient becomes attached tothe comforts and social advantages of being a scientific celebrity. The doc- tor begins to realize what is being de- stroyed. At one point he tells a col- league that the more "normal" the Ele- phant Man becomm, the more the ill- ness that will kill him is advancing. 4 What he ls saying by implication, and goes on to say more explicitly at the play's end, is that the free and bound- less spirit of his patient has been gradu- ally crushed. The Elephant Man gradu- ally loses the questioning vitality he Ely: ,ilirtu llorlt Eintra Published: April 20, 1979 Copyright (C) The New York Times Mr. Hobson will be a candidate not for one but for three supporting actor a The most splendid of these lighter strands is the role of the actress. Carole Shelley is golden and regal, the profes- sional contracted by Treves to visit the deformed man and, using her acting, mask the disgust that every other woman has shown. Miss Shelley prac- tices four different styles of affectionate treatment, bewitching him and captivating us. But she goes on, with her grace and her wit, to open up the startling gifts of expression that have been buried in the Elephant Man. And finally she answers the bottled-up sexual longing of the sick man with the most touching of ges tunes: stripping to the waist for him. Although the second act has been tightened up since the play was per- formed at St. Peter's, it is still the weaker portion. In 'Bart-it is inevitable: the opening up of Elephant Man is more exciting than his decline. And fur- thermore many of the themes that are dramatized at the beginning remain to be expounded at the end. They are ex- pounded very well indeed, but some of the play's immediacy flags abit. This slowing down is perhaps less a defect than a trait. "Elephant Man" is an enthralling and luminous play. Apart from those already mentioned, credit should be given to the faultless direction by ack the fine, bleak set by David enltins, Julie Weiss's costumes and Beverly Em- rnons's lighting.