Equus (play)
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Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer, telling the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological fascination with horses.
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[edit] Subject and Significance
Shaffer was inspired to write his play when he heard of a crime involving a teenage boy's apparently senseless injury to horses. He then set out to construct a fictional account of what might have caused the incident, without knowing any of the details of the crime. The play is posited as a kind of postmodern detective story.
The boy, who worked part-time in the stables where the attack occurred, would take a certain horse out for occasional night rides. Those jaunts functioned as the set piece for an elaborate ritual of exaltation constructed by his anguished psyche.
Delving into Alan's tormented mind causes Dysart to confront his own spiritual atrophy, the result of a modern consumer culture that tolerates only enervated conformity. Dysart reflects: "That boy has known a passion more ferocious than I have felt in any second of my life. And let me tell you something: I envy it. ... I watch [my wife]...night after night—a woman I haven't kissed in six years— and he stands in the dark for an hour, sucking the sweat off his god's hairy cheek!" The horse stands for mysterious, uncontrolled inner impulses, for the life force itself.
But according to Randy Harrison, who starred in the play's latest American revival (2005), "The play's about so much, it's hard to talk about it... Equus is one of the most significant English-language plays of the past 30 years. Anybody who hasn't seen it or read it needs to, if they care at all about theater or literature."
[edit] Original Productions
The play was originally staged at the National Theatre at the Old Vic in London in 1973. It was directed by John Dexter and starred Alec McCowen as psychiatrist Martin Dysart and Peter Firth as Alan Strang, the young patient. It was subsequently presented on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre with Anthony Hopkins and Peter Firth.
Later, Tom Hulce played the role of Alan Strang and Anthony Perkins replaced Hopkins as Martin Dysart. Perkins was briefly replaced by Richard Burton for the star's return to Broadway for a limited run. Perkins resumed the part when Burton's run ended. The play received a Tony Award for best play in 1975.
Equus was acclaimed not only for its dramatic craftmanship and the performances by the stars, but also for its brilliantly original staging. The horses were portrayed by actors in brown track suits, wearing a wire abstraction of a horse's head. The entire cast, including the actors playing the horses, remained seated on stage for the play's duration, watching the action along with the audience. Part of the audience was seated on the stage as well, in bleachers that looked out into the auditorium, creating the effect that the spectators surrounded the action.
[edit] Film adaptation
Shaffer adapted the play for a 1977 film starring Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Eileen Atkins, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright and Jenny Agutter, directed by Sidney Lumet.
[edit] Revivals
Equus is to be recreated in 2007 with Richard Griffiths and Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe cast in the leading roles. The play will be directed by Thea Sharrock, and will open in London in February at the Gielgud Theatre. With its famous cast member, it has caused controversy, as the role of Alan Strang is required to ride naked across the stage on a horse. [1] However, Radcliffe states that he wants to remain true to the role.
Massachusett's Berkshire Theatre Festival revived Equus in the Summer of 2005, staged by Scott Schwartz, with Victor Slezak as Dr Martin Dysart and Randy Harrison as Alan Strang. (Roberta Maxwell, who originated the role of Jill, Alan's would-be girlfriend, in the original Broadway production, three decades ago, played a judge in this revival.)
[edit] Popular culture
- In an episode of the television series Get a Life (207, "Chris the Escort"), Chris Elliott's character attends a performance of Equus starring Max Baer Jr. and Ron Palillo.
- In the Simpsons episode The Seven-Beer Snitch, a theatre marquee in Shelbyville advertises "Sideshow Mel in Equus."
- The play was the focus of a 2006 article by the satirical newspaper The Onion with the headline "Second-Graders Wow Audience With School Production Of Equus".
- Blonde Redhead's album Misery is a Butterly includes a track entitled Equus
- The Barnes & Barnes album "Voobaha" includes a song called "Clip Clop (Ode to Equus)"
