PROTEUS Theatre Company's production of the Elephant Man, the story of Joseph Merrick and his disfigured frame, was not what I was expecting.

This experimental drama group, which shares the name of Merrick's condition - the Proteus syndrome - believes the audience is as important as the artist.

This one-man show is brilliantly performed by Saul Jaffe, who plays all the characters, switching between them superbly.

In other words theatregoers, expect to get involved in this one-man show, brilliantly performed by Saul Jaffe, who plays all the characters, switching between them superbly.

The sheer physical effort Jaffe puts in is astonishing and did not go unappreciated by the audience.

There were moments you could be forgiven for thinking you were at a circus rather than a theatre.

There were moments you could be forgiven for thinking you were at a circus rather than a theatre.

At one point the story's travelling freak show host Tom Norman, leapt off the stage and handed me a full-sized melon, before accusing me in front of the whole crowd of having a fetish for fondling melons in the dark.

Perhaps it was an attempt to make me an object of ridicule and humour, just like the Elephant Man himself.

The performance began with Jaffe at the back of the theatre offering people wine gums. When he got on stage he grabbed a member of the audience from the front row, before reeling off a repertoire of memory games and illusion tricks.

At one point the story's travelling freak show handed me a full-sized melon, before accusing me in front of the whole crowd of having a fetish for fondling melons in the dark.

As he was keen to emphasise, the first rule when going to the theatre, is never sit in the front row. Thankfully I was in the second. But I was puzzled at what the point of this all was - I thought Jaffe was just the compere and hoped this tedious preamble, lasting half an hour, would soon end.

The production succinctly pulls together the different episodes in the story. One minute Jaffe is playing Merrick, lamenting his condition and longing to just go home.

This fast-paced performance is a strictly minimalist one, with Jaffe never changing costume and simply relying on just a few props.

Then without any warning, the focus switches and the audience finds itself thrown into a lecture theatre at the Royal London Hospital, in a mock question and answer session on Merrick's condition with Dr Frederick Treves.

This fast-paced performance is a strictly minimalist one, with Jaffe never changing costume and simply relying on just a few props. I was at least expecting some sort of mask, but this typified Proteus's work ethic of leaving it up to the audience to use their imagination.

12:48pm Thursday 8th May 2008

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