11 – 14 June
They say that elephants never forget and so it proves in this spectacular, warm-hearted production now on tour and at Oxford Playhouse.
A mixture of dance, puppetry, song, music and narrative, The Vanishing Elephant tells the story of Janu, a she-elephant born under a tamarind tree in Bengal and undergoing in her long life several types of ‘vanishing’.
First, she is taken from her family by people who plan to tame and exploit her. Young Opu (Adi Chugh) feels instinctive compassion for the young creature but Mahout (Madhav Vasantha) tells him that her spirit must be broken so that she can be put to work. Even so, a bond forms between the boy and the young elephant. Then, in another vanishing, Janu is sold to an American circus owner, shipped across the Atlantic, and carted around – literally in a crate – to be displayed in one hick town after another.
Her trainer Jarett (Terrance Fleming) finally balks at the brutality of the means required to make Janu – now Westernised as Jenny – perform demeaning tricks. In a brilliantly realised scene, Janu/Jenny saves the circus folk from an attack by a tiger, another of the caged creatures.
Years later, the Indian elephant will become the highlight of a performance by Houdini, the famous escapologist and magician, in which she will be made to vanish on stage. And the elderly Opu will journey to the States for one final encounter with his childhood friend. He has never forgotten her. Will she remember him? Is this to be her last vanishing?
In the style of War Horse, the different stages of Janu’s life are realised through puppetry (designed by Helen Foan) with more and more players required to operate components of this ‘most powerful pachyderm’ as she grows larger and larger. The giant head, with its flapping ears and sinuous trunk, is touchingly expressive, and the stage effects, as when the elephant in a rare moment of relaxation rolls in a muddy pond, are finely realised.
The play, written by Charles Way and directed by Paul Bosco McEneaney, lightly suggests parallels between animal exploitation and the way some people seek to control others, but the characterisation and action are broad-brush and colourful. The heart of The Vanishing Elephant is Janu herself, playful, poignant and dignified.
