Moving ‘Equus’ rides wave of emotions

I galloped. When did you?”

It is a line that sums up the play in very few words. Dysart’s emotionally distant, academic approach to life is challenged by a boy who lives and breathes his wildest imaginings.

Alan’s distant father (Timothy Carter) and doting mother (Nancy McNulty) know their boy is odd, but they are not the type to speak of such things — until he turns violent in the stables. It happens on a night when he learns his father has been harboring a secret of his own, and at the same time, a girl from the stables (Jessie Wray Goodman) tries to seduce him.

Mr. Hamp’s fervent performance converges with Ted Pappas’ sure-handed direction and imaginative design team in an emotional apex when the violent act is revealed. The nudity in the scene manifests as a literal interpretation of Alan laying bare his soul, while the “horses” (Mr. Blazer, Michael Greer, Lawrence Karl, Ryan Patrick Kearney, Benjamin James Michael and Luke Steinhauer) deliver the air of majesty and mystery that has so captured Alan’s imagination.

The deceptively simple set by James Noone makes exciting use of the Public’s turntable and much is implied with just three benches on the O’ReillyTheater thrust stage.

I first saw “Equus” as a college student when I took advantage, or so I thought, of onstage seats during the Broadway run. My memories are of trying to suppress a cough and of Anthony Perkins’ staccato delivery as Dysart.

Witnessing the play at the O’Reilly was as if seeing it for the first time, and that is how this season-opening production of “Equus” comes at you — a storm of emotions faced head-on, at a full gallop.