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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
I had to read this play for one of my university courses and I wrote a paper on it. It was easily the best play I read all year. It's amazing. Shaffer is a brilliant, brilliant writer. This was a heart breaking journey and really makes you question who is saving who and what saving a person really means. What makes a monster? Shaffer manages to make the inconceivable understandable. It really inspired me in my journey as a playwright. This is a must read play!
stripping away one’s soul, spirituality, and uniqueness in order to conform with modern society’s ideals. an interesting read to be sure
I don't read many plays, but I'm an admirer of the film of this, and the play taken by itself is quite extraordinary. It includes complex stage directions, based on the original production directed by John Dexter, and the overall impression is of a script and staging that manages to do something seemingly contradictory: to combine a Brechtian kind of critical stagecraft, which draws attention to its artificiality, while also being completely immersive psychologically and dramatically. The film actually smooths some of this out, by presenting the flashbacks and mise-en-scene in more conventional form, e.g. with actual horses.
Also saw it on Broadway with Daniel Radcliffe... naked :]
If I could give this play 6, 7, 8 stars I would. 5 just feels too few.
Equus is one of those plays that even though I've never seen it or read it seems to have an almost mythic place in my consciousness. I know the story, I know some of its themes and I know Daniel Ratcliffe gets stripped off in the most recent revival.
Its the story of a boy who blinds horses and a psychiatrist who searched for the answer to why. The play deals with issues of religious fervour, psychiatric illness, sanity and insanity as well as parental control and personal responsibility. It shows psychiatry to be red in both tooth and claw.
This is a harsh, hard and bleak play that does not come to a nice, cosy, happy ending but it's a compelling and compulsive read.
Equus is one of those plays that even though I've never seen it or read it seems to have an almost mythic place in my consciousness. I know the story, I know some of its themes and I know Daniel Ratcliffe gets stripped off in the most recent revival.
Its the story of a boy who blinds horses and a psychiatrist who searched for the answer to why. The play deals with issues of religious fervour, psychiatric illness, sanity and insanity as well as parental control and personal responsibility. It shows psychiatry to be red in both tooth and claw.
This is a harsh, hard and bleak play that does not come to a nice, cosy, happy ending but it's a compelling and compulsive read.
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A good play to read when thinking about myth-making and how it reconciles or subjugates itself to our modern norms. Repression is a trace that is found throughout the books constructed myths, but one is left wondering if repression came from the outside world, rather than Alan Strang or Dr. Dysarts interior. The great Normal is often lambasted, and for good reason, as anyone who has lived a single day can tell that we are forced into a religion that lacks any religiosity, keeping us subservient, deadened, and without creativity. The themes of psychiatry were also quite interesting, offering up the idea of who psychiatry serves, the patient or the system. The book answers with the system, but our two main characters are less than reliable, and ultimately, the question is best left to be answered by the reader.
In this play, we follow Dr Dysart and his patient Alan Strang who has just blinded 6 horses. The story is riddled with Freudian and mythological themes. Alan Strang constructs his own theology involving the horses he works with. Alan confuses his adoration with his God “Equus” with sexual attraction. When a girl attempts to sleep with him in the stables they work in, he is unable to perform knowing the horses are watching. Later he blinds them in a rage filled by self-hatred. The doctor is envious of Alan’s depth of passion and wonders of living “normally” is actually better than what society would call madness. Dysart argues that Alan’s disturbance might be important to his individuality, as the disturbance is directly related to his extreme passion. Removing these two things would leave very little of Alan left.
The creative beauty of madness juxtaposed with the repressiveness of the conventional family, Equus argues that normal might not be ideal.
The creative beauty of madness juxtaposed with the repressiveness of the conventional family, Equus argues that normal might not be ideal.
This play asks many important questions. What is the definition of normal, and what is the benefit of moving a human being in closer proximity to it? The question, "I have galloped; have you?" echoes Thoreau's desire "to live deeply and suck out all the marrow of life..."
I have become a fan of Peter Shaffer's work after seeing Amadeus both performed live and adapted to film. I had first heard of Equus a few years ago, when Daniel Radcliffe's portrayal of horse-obsessed Alan Strang garnered much attention and even controversy among the Harry Potter community. "A horse and his boy" - to borrow from C.S. Lewis - I thought then and didn't give it much notice. But after finally reading the play, I was astonished by the craftsmanship Shaffer manifests in his writing. Wielding together the veins of religion - God, idol worship, lack of worship and passion - and literary symbolism with the image of the horse resurfacing in biblical scripture, in images, in stories, Shaffer creates his own entire religion based on Equus, the begotten One, who bears away Alan's sins. Analyzing and treating him is Dr. Dysart, who does not dismiss Alan as a freak or a criminal, but negotiates with him, enters his world on Alan's terms, and even comes to envy his penitent passion for his idol.
I have become a fan of Peter Shaffer's work after seeing Amadeus both performed live and adapted to film. I had first heard of Equus a few years ago, when Daniel Radcliffe's portrayal of horse-obsessed Alan Strang garnered much attention and even controversy among the Harry Potter community. "A horse and his boy" - to borrow from C.S. Lewis - I thought then and didn't give it much notice. But after finally reading the play, I was astonished by the craftsmanship Shaffer manifests in his writing. Wielding together the veins of religion - God, idol worship, lack of worship and passion - and literary symbolism with the image of the horse resurfacing in biblical scripture, in images, in stories, Shaffer creates his own entire religion based on Equus, the begotten One, who bears away Alan's sins. Analyzing and treating him is Dr. Dysart, who does not dismiss Alan as a freak or a criminal, but negotiates with him, enters his world on Alan's terms, and even comes to envy his penitent passion for his idol.