Bernard Pomerance (September 23, 1940 – August 26, 2017) was an American playwright and poet whose best known work is the play ''
The Elephant Man
Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890), often erroneously called John Merrick, was an English man known for having severe deformities. He was first exhibited at a freak show under the stage name "the Elephant Man" and then we ...
''.
Biography
Pomerance was born in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
in 1940. He studied at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
and moved to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in 1968.
His first play, ''High in Vietnam, Hot Damn'', was performed at the Interaction Theatre and directed by Roland Rees. Along with Rees and
David Aukin
David Aukin (born 12 February 1942) is a theatrical and executive producer as well as a qualified solicitor. He has been nominated many times for British Academy Television Awards and has won twice for producing films about Tony Blair: ''The Gov ...
, Pomerance helped to found the theatre company Foco Novo in 1972. The name was taken from Pomerance’s play of the same title, the company’s inaugural production.
For Foco Novo he adapted a new version of ''A Man’s a Man'' by
Bertold Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...
and wrote ''The Elephant Man'', which was originally produced in 1977. One of the more successful and regularly revived plays to come out of the London
fringe theatre, ''The Elephant Man'' was performed in repertory at Britain’s
National Theatre and several times off and on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
. In 1979 ''The Elephant Man'' won the
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...
for Best Play. It ran for 916 performances at The Booth Theatre and was made into a film for television with the original cast. In 2013 Williamstown Theater Festival produced a revival of ''The Elephant Man'', which starred Bradley Cooper, Patricia Clarkson and Alessandro Nivola. The play transferred to the Booth Theater on Broadway in Winter 2014, where it played to sold out houses. It then transferred to the Haymarket Theater, London, in Spring 2015 with the same cast.
The Hollywood
film of the same name, directed by
David Lynch, was not an adaptation of the play as many people assume. Having used the title and drawn on much of the original content of the play, the production company successfully was sued by Pomerance.
Pomerance first was inspired to write plays by the work of
Eugene O’Neill, having seen the original production of ''
Long Day's Journey into Night''. A later influence was the British playwright
John Arden
John Arden (26 October 1930 – 28 March 2012) was an English playwright who at his death was lauded as "one of the most significant British playwrights of the late 1950s and early 60s".
Career
Born in Barnsley, son of the manager of a glass f ...
. Several of Pomerance’s plays take as their subject politically weighted views of American history, such as ''Quantrill in Lawrence'' and ''Melons'', which were both produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Personal life
Pomerance was first married to the British writer
Sally Belfrage
Sally Belfrage (October 4, 1936 – March 14, 1994) was a United States-born British-based 20th century non-fiction writer and international journalist. Her writing covered turmoils in Northern Ireland, the American Civil Rights Movement and her ...
, with whom he had two children. They divorced in 1983. Pomerance married Evelyne Franceschi on August 15, 2008 at the courthouse in
Santa Fe, New Mexico. She died in 2015.
Pomerance died at his home in
Galisteo, New Mexico
Galisteo is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States. It is part of the Santa Fe, New Mexico Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 253 at the 2010 census.
Geography
Galisteo is located at (35.39 ...
on August 26, 2017, following a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 76.
Tony-Award winning writer of 'Elephant Man' known for compassion, wit
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References
* Roland Rees, ''Fringe First: Pioneers of the New Theatre on Record'', Oberon Books, 1996.
External links
Listing of plays at doollee.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pomerance, Bernard
1940 births
2017 deaths
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male poets
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American poets
University of Chicago alumni
Writers from Brooklyn
20th-century American male writers
American expatriates in the United Kingdom