Ben Johnson crouches on the stage, wrapped in a sheet. The top of his head is visible under the pale blue fabric. Elbows poke out like wings.

Slowly the sheet slides off his body and a contorted face emerges, jaw twisted, tongue popping out, one eye all but shut.

Johnson is rehearsing for the lead in the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre’s production of The Elephant Man, the true story of John Merrick, the sideshow attraction who became the darling of Victorian society. Those who saw the David Lynch film about Merrick will remember his misshapen figure, the bony growth on his skull that made his head look like a lump of cauliflower, his club of an arm and diseased leg with the bum hip.

But in the play, Johnson wears no make up, no clumps of latex, no sheets of fake skin or prosthetic devices. He conveys Merrick’s sorrowful condition through suggestion, through gestures and poses.

“It’s one thing to do it in a film,” said Tony Estrella, Elephant Man director, “another to do it on stage where you can see the seams and latex and everything looks kind of phony.”

You’d need a huge budget and the talents of a Hollywood makeup artist to not look ridiculous, said Estrella.

The Broadway version of the play was done on television years ago without make up, said Estrella, who is also the creative head of the Gamm, and at least one critic pointed out how difficult it was for a theatrical production to translate to such a naturalistic medium as TV.

“It’s hard to make it work without makeup on TV,” said Estrella, “but on stage I think it’s all the more effective and the only way to do it.

“You could treat it like Beauty and the Beast, but that’s really a cartoon, and you don’t want to have a cartoon for a play with such delicate themes about humanity and dignity.”

Followers of the Gamm in recent seasons know about Johnson’s knack for physical theater, from his roles as the mute jester in Red Noses and the dim-witted Swiss Cheese in Mother Courage.

Johnson brings a special quality to parts like these, largely from his background as a circus clown, and his ability to do things like juggle and balance a ladder on his chin. A decade ago he attended the Ringling Brothers clown school in Sarasota, Fla., and toured with the company for a couple of years. Since then he has worked as a clown in a community center in the South Bronx and in children’s hospitals. In the last few years he has turned to acting and used his repertoire of skills on the Gamm stage.

“He brings a kind of physical vocabulary to the part that I don’t think a lot of actors possess,” said Estrella.

Johnson had only done a few comedic bit parts before coming to Providence three years ago.

“I’m self-taught with a lot of help,” he said.

The California native had been living in New York and came here to be near his girlfriend and to work for Brown University’s Arts Literacy Project, which fosters reading in kids. He has also worked as a clown at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and children’s hospitals in New Haven and Boston.

“The biggest part of the job is to figure out how to read a room quickly,” said Johnson. “Sometimes the kids need you to be frenetic, to be up so they can cut loose and play. Sometimes they need you to be quiet and more restrained. Sometimes they need you to not be there.”

JOHNSON WAS A 20-year-old college dropout waiting tables in San Francisco when he decided to sign up for clown school. It was something that came out of the blue, he says.

After nine weeks of school (six days a week and 14 hours a day) he set out to see which routines would fly by giving free performances. He then signed a two-year contract with Ringling Brothers and took part in some 1,000 shows.

This, unfortunately, will be Johnson’s last performance with the Gamm, at least for the foreseeable future. The actor is moving back to California, where he plans to substitute teach in the Oakland schools and perform. Elephant Man runs until Oct. 7 and Johnson will be on a plane to California two days later.

His girlfriend, Rosa Miller, has already moved there and found an apartment. But Johnson stayed on to do Elephant Man. Estrella couldn’t think of any one else in the part.

“He’s a striking physical presence,” said Estrella.

Johnson has been developing the role of Merrick since Estrella first offered him the part at the end of last season. It is his first dramatic lead at the theater, where he has appeared in five previous productions. He has studied photos of Merrick’s twisted body and read books about his difficult life. Gradually, he came up with a series of moves that convey the man’s afflictions.

He also learned his lines early on. Because he uses a cane and keeps his useless right arm bent behind him, Johnson said it would have been difficult to hold a script.

IN THE SHOW, HE walks with a limp, since Merrick developed hip disease as a youngster, and his breathing is labored as a result of lung and heart disease that Merrick developed near the end of his short life.

“What happens,” said Johnson, “is that early on the audience will see photos of the actual man, and then you ask the audience to sort of suspend their belief. The hope is the audience will see that and forget about the physicality and focus on the story being told.”

Merrick, whose real name was Joseph (his physician dubbed him John and it stuck), was born in England in 1862. He was beset by deformities as a child and grew rapidly worse, dying in his late 20s.

At one point he worked in side shows, and for a while lived on the streets. It was while performing in a storefront near London Hospital that Merrick was discovered by a young surgeon named Frederick Treves. Treves gave him a room in the hospital, educated him and introduced him to London society.

The rich and powerful found their way to his modest quarters, and Merrick became something of a celebrity. He was befriended by a famous actress of the day, Madge Kendal, and met Princess Alexandra, wife of Prince Edward, who later became king.

The story is touching, but also not black and white, said Estrella.

“It would be easy to make this story about we’re all beautiful on the inside,” said Estrella, “about how you can’t judge a book by its cover. But what could be more boring? We know all these things.”

INSTEAD, PLAYWRIGHT Bernard Pomerance holds Merrick up as a mirror to Victorian society, and in a way to our own notions about compassion and a charity.

“For every act of altruism, how much of it is exploitation, condescension and selfishness?” asked Estrella. “I think that’s a big part of the play. It’s the celebrities going to Darfur or Bono going to Africa. If there’s some sort of benefit to it, then that’s a good thing. But what are they getting out of it.”

Reaching out to the less fortunate had become popular in Victorian England, said Estrella. There were organizations dedicated to fixing the slums and feeding the poor.

But it became something of a fad, just as it became fashionable to visit Merrick in his hospital room and bring him gifts.

“Now everyone wants a child from an impoverished country,” said Estrella. “People are talking about a child from the third world as though it’s an accessory, like a Prada handbag.

“Is that unfair? On some level, probably.

“But it’s hard not to pull back when you see them walking around with a kid on their hip and it becomes another form of self-exaltation. And the play is just loaded with that.”

Treves, for example, became quite famous, becoming one of King Edward’s doctors. But would he have received such recognition without his association with Merrick?

POMERANCE ALSO DEALS with the question of who is normal, said Johnson. There was a lot of fashionable, self-inflicted deformity in Victorian England, with women binding themselves up in corsets and sporting bustles.

“It’s a very involved play,” said Johnson. “It’s not just about beauty is skin deep. That’s the easy story.

“What Pomerance is doing is posing these difficult questions about charity and acting for positive social change, about those who experience privilege and those who do not.

“Despite what you may think about Merrick’s physical condition, he was a normal man with a vibrant intellectual view of the world.”

The Elephant Man opens in previews Thursday and runs through Oct. 7 at the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre, 172 Exchange St., Pawtucket. Tickets are $20-$34, with discounts for seniors and students. Call (401) 723-4266, or visit www.arttixri.com. Information is at www.gammtheatre.org.