PEOPLE ARE ONLY FRIGHTENED OF WHAT THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND.

Joseph Merrick, better known as the Elephant Man, is cast out. He survived circus ‘freak shows’ and the revulsion of a gawking public for years until a young doctor offered him asylum at the London Hospital in 1879.

So began a life of endless observation. But curiosity works both ways, and Merrick returned the horrified gaze of Victorian punters and nurses with wonder and optimism.

This story has inspired multiple theatrical adaptations, novels and a film by David Lynch. Now the team behind Malthouse Theatre’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, director Matthew Lutton and playwright Tom Wright, reunite to create a poignant new work that uncovers empathy in a world that rejects difference.

Weaving through a carnival of hospitals, the circus and the public arena, The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man is a profoundly moving story about the radical power of compassion.

* This production has been playlisted for VCE Theatre Studies (Unit 4) *
(2 shows – Thursday August 24,  7.30pm evening show and also 12.30pm for the schools’ show)