Word: equus
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...volume's title and its prevailing horse theme pose more problems. Townshend never included his horse fetish in his music, so why does he choose to rhapsodize over the animals in his prose debut? The last chapter, "Lagune. Valentine's Day, 1982," is an imagistic digression extremely reminiscent of "Equus," only more graphic. Pete writes, "The horse is beautiful. Its mane is flowing and clean, its coat brushed and smooth. Its eyelashes are long and curved. The horse is now before me, it bares its teeth and its tongue flicks out. I hold the great, gorgeous head in my hands...
...himself in a sheet before entering class. "When I walk into the room in a toga," he explains, "I've got everyone's attention." He holds it with a Latin version of What's My Line?, spelling bees and a puppet show starring a mouse named Equus Eddie. In Fairfax, Va., Maureen O'Donnell awards daily bonus points to high school students who can pick out pop items like Top 40 song titles scribbled in Latin on the blackboard...
...like all gods. Equus is a jealous god. After a girl who works with Alan at the stables tries to seduce him one night he is over whelmed with feelings of guilt for his spiritual and physical infidelity. The inner torment drives him into the blinding rage that ultimately lands him in Dysart's office...
...treatment progresses, Dysart's misgivings about his mission increase. He does not relish the task of retrieving Alan from the fictitious temple of Equus and restoring him to the antiseptic world of normalcy. And it is more than just "professional menopause" from which Dysart suffers. Behind Alan's pain he sees a passion that is absent from his own life. The choice facing Dysart is whether to leave Alan in his own vivid albeit torturing world, or to send him on his way into a society bleached of real emotions...
Both for the performances and the play itself, then, Equus should not be missed...