What constitutes a good piece of theatre? I guess it depends on your expectations, but when I arrived home from watching A Perfect Specimen on Thursday night, I lay awake pondering the deeper undercurrent of its theme and questioned what makes us humans both fascinated and repelled by those who are different.
Playwright Nathaniel Moncrieff, took his inspiration for A Perfect Specimen from a book penned by Fredrick Drimmer in 1973 called ‘Very Special People‘. While the book tells of the struggles of many people with genetic deformities who were sold off to the ‘freak shows and circuses’ to delight the macabre and the curious, one story stood out. The story of Julia Pastrana ‘The Ape Lady’.
“Upon reading it [the book], I was certain Drimmer had made it up. So of course I was compelled to research the tale further. And of course it was entirely, bizarrely true.” says Moncrieff in the program.
A Perfect Specimen follows the life of Theodore Lent, a ruthless mercenary, exploiting his wife Julia as the centre piece of his travelling circus. Lent billed her as the ‘Ugliest Woman Alive’ due to her condition, which these days would be diagnosed as congenital generalized hypertrichosis terminalis (or CGHT) but in the 19th century, she was considered a “freak of nature” with her animal-like hair covering her body, and her swollen lips and gums giving her a primate type appearance. She made Lent a very rich man and when she fell pregnant with his child, the dollars signs shone ahead of him like lights on the Vegas strip. Two for the price of one.
This production is perfectly cast with Luke Hewitt at the helm as the most unlikeable Lent and in stark contrast, Adrianne Daff, plays the role of Pastrana with fragility and inner beauty.
For some, the reveal of Julia’s disfigurement may be anticlimactic but Daff’s youth and purity soon suspends our belief, seeing her inner beauty worn on the outside. Director Stuart Halusz took a great risk in making this decision and for me, it paid off. A deep and profound metaphorical statement.
Greg McNeill and Igor Sas play their character roles, albeit minor parts, like the seasoned professionals that they are. McNeill’s character Cornell Wurlitzer portrays great empathy and a natural nurturing affection for Julia.
Playing dual roles as Mariam Trumbull (Lent’s lover) and Valeriya Nekrasov (Pastrana’s midwife), Rebecca Davis struggled a little with the Russian accent in the latter. Saying that, she was superb as the desperately unfulfilled trapeze artist, even demonstrating her gymnastic skills on the silks during the performance and showcasing those long legs as if they were a character all of their own.
To the creative team behind A Perfect Specimen, I congratulate the collaborative efforts behind the set design, lighting, sound and wardrobe. It all comes together in a beautifully eerie and captivating experience.
I want to reveal more of the story to you but I feel I will do it an injustice. You need to feel the shock and anger of the events for yourself. Suffice to say, since seeing the show, I have researched both Julia Pastrana and Theodore Lent and am in equal measures appalled and fascinated by what history reveals.
I compare A Perfect Specimen to Venice. Only when you have left it behind does its beauty magnify in your memory, urging you to return, to see all the things you missed the first time around.
A Perfect Specimen will be showing at Studio Undergound at the State Theatre Centre, in Northbridge until 17 July. If you want to see something new, that will leave you a little intrigued about the history of the circus sideshow, then I urge you to get along to this show.
