Thought-provoking piece of theatre
THE structure of Equus by Peter Shaffer is that of a detective story, the audience know the crime and the culprit from the beginning but the motive unfolds in this dark challenging play, a challenge successfully met by the accomplished Festival Players in their latest production at the Robert Martin Theatre.
Shaffer was inspired to write Equus when he heard of a crime involving a 17-year-old youth who blinded six horses.
The play sets out a fictional account of what might have triggered the incident by relating the tale of Dr Dysar - a disaffected psychiatrist who attempts to treat the disturbed and pathological mind of Alan Strang to unravel the reasons behind the heinous crime.
The mood of the play is unsettling as it probes into the realms of religion, sexual frustration, personal values and sanity and in the hands of a less able director could become overdramatic but under the capable direction of Ingrid Daniels, the message of the play is impressively delivered.
Experienced Steve Illidge gives a solid performance as Martin Dysart who leads the audience through the play interspersing his excellent narrative monologues with flashback dramatic scenes with Daniel Grooms capturing the disturbed mind of Alan Strang impeccably as he created the totally believable troubled youth.
And the relationship and verbal sparring between the two was superb, taking the tension to the wire but never tripping over it.
There are no weak links in the remainder of the cast, all give controlled and committed performances especially Cathy Rackstraw as Alan’s religion-driven mother Dora and Nick Grainger his cynical atheist father Frank.
Impressive too were the ‘horses’ adding to the disturbing nature of the play moving eerily, their faces hauntingly concealed behind effective masks.
The minimalistic set, costumes and lighting plus the informative and, at times, creepy images projected on a background screen, all succeeded in creating a disturbing and thought-provoking piece of theatre.
Again another triumph for the company.
I have a poignant footnote to add - it was in the Robert Martin theatre where the wellknown and popular founder of the Festival Players, Louis Stanford, who recently passed away, performed his first play in 1954.
I have no doubt that he would have been proud of this production.