One hundred and twenty five years have passed since Joseph Merrick was found lying dead in his bed, but his life, during which he rose to fame as the Elephant Man, continues to fascinate us today.

And while Hollywood actor Bradley Cooper may be preparing to bring his life story to London this summer, he has been beaten to the punch by Queen’s Theatre’s resident company.

Led by associate director Simon Jessop the professional ensemble cut to the chase… will bring the extraordinary tale of Joseph to the stage from tomorrow (April 17) in The Elephant Man.

Simon says: “Obviously the confines of the Queen’s Theatre are very different to the mega-million pound production on Broadway and I think that’s interesting – to see what one of the last repertory companies in the country, at the end of the District Line, will do with a few quid. What can they make of it?”

Tom Cornish will take on the role of Joseph, renamed John in the 1977-penned play, who was born in Leicester in 1862 and began to develop abnormally during the early years of his life, with a bony lump growing on his forehead and his skin becoming thick and lumpy.

Simon says of his leading man: “With his physicality and intensity I knew he would be right for it. You really need someone who’s brave and totally committed because it’s emotionally, physically and spiritually challenging, but I knew he would be the man for the job and he won’t disappoint.

“He will give Bradley Cooper a run for his money any day of the week.”

Staying true to playwright Bernard Pomerance’s wishes, Tom will play the role without any prosthetics and Simon says not being bound by those constraints allows the imagination of the cast and audience to take over.

“The playwright said either you will do a really bad job of the make-up, which will be distracting from the art and poetry or you will do a really good job, which in some ways will be equally distracting. So it’s up to the actor to adopt a physicality and speech restrictions that Merrick was under and leave it at that.

“The audience will witness the creation of that and it makes it much more interesting than someone coming on with a lump of prosthetics on his face.”

Merrick laboured in a workhouse for four years before joining a travelling side-show as a ‘freak’ named the Elephant Man and was then befriended by a surgeon named Frederick Treves and invited to live at The London Hospital – where he died on April 11, 1890, aged 27.

“It’s a true story that happened down the road in Whitechapel,” says Simon.

“It’s about this man having to deal with what his condition left him with and people’s preconceptions and the humility of human kindness. It’s incredibly moving, it’s about hope, although it is a dark story.”

Simon says the “epic” set has been built on three levels to evoke the atmosphere of the Victorian hospital where Joseph spent his last days. The cast is made up of James Earl Adair, Ellie Rose Boswell, Fred Broom, Joanna Hickman, Megan Leigh Mason and Stuart Organ who all play musical instruments live on stage.

Simon, who made his solo directorial début with The Great Gatsby a year ago, followed by Deadly Murder in February, has become known for his cinematic style of theatre directing and has experimented with whale song for the production, which he hopes will inspire people.

“The Elephant Man has been on my radar for a long time because it offers up a lot of possibilities for interpretation. It’s a skeleton of a story upon which you and the company have to hang the rest of the flesh and is open to interpretation which I like.”

He adds: “The hardest part of anything like this, which is semi-abstract and surreal, is that I have worked on it for seven months with designers and on the first day of rehearsals you have to present that to your actors and hope that they buy into it.

“It’s getting them to be passionate and understand the style. I do ask big things of people because I have got big ideas, so it’s great when they do trust you and commit to the project and that makes it fly.”

Queen’s Theatre, Billet Lane, Hornchurch, April 17 to May 9. Details: 01708 443333, queens-theatre.co.uk