The Elephant Man is well known to modern audiences from John Hurt's powerful performance in David Lynch's film. Bernard Pomerance's version of John (Joseph) Merrick is the perfect gentleman - an artist and a man of faith. His true affliction is the appetite of those around him for freaks and spectacle; the public craving for the peculiar, beloved of P T Barnum and later deplored. The play explores Merrick's pursuit of meaning, acceptance and love, just as his physician, Dr. Treves, seeks to understand the true nature of his condition.