The Elephant Man at Canadian Stage
Kate Trotter on Brent Carver and Robin Phillips
In Part Two, Kate Trotter chats about working with Elephant Man director Robin Phillips, and how his leading man Brent Carver found a unique way to honour the memory of "The Elephant Man", John Merrick.
What’s Robin Phillips like as a director? Does he say Kate, go and do your thing – you find the character and we work from there? How much input did you have?
“Robin is magic. He has got the insight and the intellect and the verve of an artist himself, so what he does is watch with an eagle eye at what little seeds you put into the ground, and as the little shoots come up he says “What about that one? Now put a little fertilizer on that one, or I’m not sure that one needs to be in the garden, give it a try..." and eventually you realize that he’s absolutely right. At the end of it he has created a magnificent garden out of what you offered him.There is not one thing that I feel he imposed on any of us.That’s not to say that he didn’t come in with an understanding of that piece that was monumental. Robin has read everything historically, and he knows the time period. He read everything there was to read about John Merrick and about Frederick Treves and about Mrs. Kendal There was not a question you could ask that he didn’t have an answer to, but he would say, well that’s my feeling, let’s see where you take it.”
I am sure you all did your own research …
"Oh yes we did. Robin loves actors. He loves theatre. He loves the arts and he is brilliant. Robin gets inside every actor’s head differently. He does not expect the same route. It would not be the same as Brent walked, or Geraint, or as I walked. Everyone walked their own route so you end up going on stage secure. That is very different than a lot of times I have gone on stage thinking how am I going to camouflage what I don’t know?
In this show you go on passionately committed to what it is that you did together in that rehearsal hall and there is not a stone unturned in the work. Robin said this to us opening night. "I love you all and it is a wonderful show and I believe in the show, but most importantly I want you to go out there, remembering that your doing it for that man." He pointed up to the picture of the man on the screen and he said this is who we are doing it for… in memory of John Merrick."
The other thing about Pomerance’s piece is that the audience is left to imagine the real grotesqueness of Merrick – what was Brent Carver’s process like?
"Brent, if he answered that question, would likely start by saying it comes from the inside. People have asked him ‘ How do you find the exterior?’ and he says mmm... uh... because he doesn’t have an answer to it. What he finds is the heartbeat of the human being and then that heartbeat finds its way into his body. I think that’s true of all the characters on that stage and that partly comes from Robin. But that’s how Brent finds a physicality. First of all, he finds the soul and then he spends a whole bunch of time communing with the soul of that person and then he goes out there and he represents that soul. I think that’s why the grotesque shape that he contorts himself into is so heartbreaking. You can see it grow from the heart of Brent."
Brent Carver as John Merrick
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Robin Phillips
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