Word: equus
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Equus takes place in the present in Rokeby Psychiatric Hospital in Southern Egland. The child psychiatrist, Martin Dysart (Brian Bedford) is asked by the local magistrate, Heather Salomon (Sheila Smith) to take on an unusual case: a disturbed young man who was brought to her court for commiting a crime less horrible in its consequences than in its explanation, a crime that is in one sense an unspeakable mystery. Alan Strang (Dai Bradley), the boy, arrives at the hospital in a state of extreme catatonia, singing advertising jingles or watching television during the day and living in a world...
...even if you have already seen Equus you should see it again for two reasons. The play has changed in small degrees, enough to say that it will be around for a long time and will be subject to radically different interpretations. The degree to which it hasn't changed is a measure of John Dexter's excellent direction...
THERE'S NOTHING much new about Peter Shaffer's Equus than hasn't already been said long ago when it was first produced by the National Theater in London or when it came to Broadway over a year ago. There's nothing new to say except that the play is finally in Boston and that it's just as good, and that if you haven't see it yet you should...
...here is in how Shaffer has constructed this sometimes--too-slick play to heighten suspense and to raise some interesting questions on the side. Equus brings to life a mythical resonance and intellectual concerns that aren't too prevalent in contemporary drama--and this, I think is why it has been acclaimed "brilliant" time and again by critics--but these concerns are cheapened...
...nervous father, shuffling about, pulling his hat round in circles between his thumb and forefinger. Bedford's performance is best, although it was marred last Friday night by a great deal of spluttering and spittle in enunciation. As narrator, Dysart controls most of the ironic pitch and timbre of Equus, and Bedford brings to the role the kind of laconic understatement that's necessary for it to succeed. In the Broadway production I saw last year, Anthony Hopkins, the original National Theater actor, seemed more effusive and self-confident. The irony was almost understated. But here, Bedford...