Word: dysart
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Equus is the story of a boy, Alan Strang (Henry Clarke '00), and his psychiatrist, Dr. Martin Dysart (Ryan McCarthy '97). In delving into Alan's brutal crime, the good doctor attempts to uncover what could possibly have motivated such depravity. With a clever interweaving of flashbacks, testimony, and action sequences, Alan's past and psyche are gradually revealed...
...Latin for "horse"). It is the intersection of reality with Alan's fantasies that leads the emotionally undeveloped boy to commit such a ghastly deed. As the play progresses, however, it becomes less about Alan and more a commentary on the restrictive conventions of normality that "society" imposes. Dr. Dysart questions his own mission in light of Alan's passions. Through a series of well-written but somewhat overly weighty monologues, he challenges the audience to do the same...
...Equus is really a two-man show. Fortunately, the two men were well-equipped to shoulder the burden. Clarke's Alan, in the tradition of Rain Man and Shine, made his tics and facial expressions consistent and believable without making a mockery of his mentally challenged character. As Dr. Dysart, McCarthy demonstrated an impressive command of a demanding script and shifted skillfully, if a bit belatedly, from two-dimensional straight man to anxious Everyman in the second...
...post-Menendez brothers era, it's hard to accept the criminal as a victim and truly sympathize with someone like Alan. It's also (perhaps intentionally) hard to commiserate with Dr. Dysart, who comes off as more of a middle-aged yuppie whiner than a genuine care-giver. Nevertheless, the doctor does succeed in exposing the complexities of what seemed to be an open-and-shut case of guilt. While most viewers probably still end up condemning the boy for his crime, the rush to judgment is not nearly as hasty or eager as at the beginning of the play...
...only the "enemy" were painted in half as much detail as the Black community. The policemen are unrelentingly brutal and mindless in their hatred. Hoover (Richard Dysart) and his aide (Beau Windham) are ridiculous in their suspicions of Communist influence behind the Panthers; the one black FBI agent is a robotic mouthpiece for integrationism. Like the Black people of Oakland, we can't fathom what fuels their intense hatred, and can only accept the police as an omnipresent menace. The film's interpretation depends on the individual viewer's ability to conceive of law enforcers as a malignant force...