‘Equus’ touches on themes of passion and order
What would cause a 17-yearold stableboy suddenly to blind six horses? That was the question that spurred Peter Shaffer to write “Equus.”
He knew nothing about the incident other than the basics of the crime related to him by a friend. But that was enough for him to spin a tale — about a troubled boy and the psychiatrist who treats him — as a means of exploring the clash between passion and order, the ways religion can be perverted and a devastating midlife crisis.
J. Barry Lewis, who directs the production opening Friday at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, calls the play “a modern-day Greek drama.”
But what most people might remember about the Tony Awardwinning play is the nudity. That’s about all anyone talked about when Daniel Radcliffe, aka Harry Potter in the films, made his Broadway debut as Alan Strang, the boy who blinds the horses, in the 2008 revival.
There’s a scene in the second act when Alan and a young woman strip when Alan is on the brink of losing his virginity.
The nudity doesn’t bother Steven Maier, who plays Alan, although he’s never been nude on
stage before. “It totally makes sense and it’s necessary in the play,” he said. “At that point, Alan is at his most emotionally vulnerable place.”
But the show has a lot more to offer than the titillation of naked bodies.
The story is told from the point of view of Martin Dysart, the psychiatrist. Martin is questioning the value of his work when he begins counseling Alan. As he unravels the mystery of what happened on the night Alan blinded the horses, he confronts the barrenness of his own life and ponders whether curing Alan will strip him of the passion Martin envies.
“He has the pretense of living a passionate life, but in reality, he’s just going on a cruise,” said Peter Simon Hilton, who portrays Martin.
The cruise Hilton mentions refers to Martin’s vacations in the stomping grounds of the ancient Greeks, whom he reveres and imagines had lives enriched by multiple gods and the passion that’s sorely lacking in his life.
Shaffer shared his character’s interest in ancient Greece. The structure of the show borrows many elements from the tragedies of Greek playwrights such as Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides.
The show is set on a nearly bare stage, recalling the amphitheaters of ancient Greece. There are few props and many actions are mimed. When the performers aren’t engaged in a scene, they’re seated on chairs on the periphery.
As the story progresses, we learn that Alan has created his own religion from a sexually charged mishmash of Christianity and his adoration of horses. The horses function like a Greek chorus. They’re played by actors wearing masks who in addition to acting like horses make humming sounds and other noises that heighten the tension.
By minimizing the visuals, Shaffer focuses attention on the text and the performers who bring it to life, Lewis said. That harks back to a tradition even older than the Greeks — storytelling.
Alan’s violent act might bring to mind recent mass murders committed by young men. Blinding horses isn’t the same as killing humans and it’s not what Shaffer was writing about.
But there’s common ground in the question that got him started on the play. As Hilton said, “The instant a tragedy happens, the question is, why?”