"This production is moving and beautiful, successful on every level... Strawberry Theatre Workshop reminds us how powerful the medium of live performance is for telling this most human, most intimate of stories. While the film showed us the physical reality of Merrick’s condition, the stage requires us to create those deformities in our own mind. It is much more vivid. We can only see the inner being, only see the real person who stands before us, while our minds create the outer body, the superficial. This play is all about showing us the interior lives of these characters, and those bodily forms, the beauties and imperfections, are what we are asked to see through... It is a most rewarding experience." ––Jerry Kraft 7/11/2009
"In Julie Beckman's very spare staging, garnished mainly by Don Darryl Rivera's moody piano music, photos of the real Merrick's distorted body are projected onto white curtains... Sieber mimics Merrick's contorted posture, but with unusual subtlety. More striking and telling is the voice this able actor uses — deep, soft, quizzical, with a slight stutter. It's the voice of a man new to intelligent conversation, but with much to say. And the questions Merrick asks of Treves about the rules of Victorian behavior haunt and challenge his protector." ––Misha Berson 7/14/2009
"It's not exaggerating to say that this has to be one of the best plays this year. It's well written and definitely well acted. It has something to say to us. A perennial message we need to be shown over and over." ––Miryam Gordon 7/17/2009
"The cast include[s] David Pichette, MJ Sieber, and Alexandra Tavares, who consistently bring a snap, crackle, and pop (respectively) to whatever they're in. The show is an hour and forty minutes with no intermission--the audience last night was glued to the stage the whole time." ––Michael van Baker 7/11/2009
"Having seen Sieber play a sweating, manic buffoon in last year's hysterical Gutenberg! The Musical!, it's sublime to watch him deliver a performance that emanates almost exclusively from the eyes. The more you watch him, the more you want to, and his scenes with Tavares will break your heart." ––Kevin Phinney 7/14/2009
"Watching Pichette's descent into hand-wringing doubt is affecting. If his breakdown to the bishop is the dramatic heart of The Elephant Man, Tavares's lightness and wit and her humane friendship with Merrick—not for scientific gain, nor regal curiosity—is its tender emotional heart." ––Brendan Kiley 7/14/2009
"Sieber’s rendering is of a gentle monster, a misunderstood victim of abuse by the fear his appearance produces... The true protagonist, however, is Dr. Treves, who David Pichette plays with a sprightly upper-class stuffiness. He is the lens through which we view our own mixture of generosity and revulsion... The play is a wealth of ideas that collide and bounce, a construction as complex as the cathedral model that Merrick builds over years with his one good hand." ––Gianni Truzzi 7/24/2009