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Equus
Equus
Equus
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Equus

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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*Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play* *A Broadway production starring Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe*

An explosive play that took critics and audiences by storm, Equus is Peter Shaffer's exploration of the way modern society has destroyed our ability to feel passion.​

Alan Strang is a disturbed youth whose dangerous obsession with horses leads him to commit an unspeakable act of violence. As psychiatrist Martin Dysart struggles to understand the motivation for Alan's brutality, he is increasingly drawn into Alan's web and eventually forced to question his own sanity.

“Remarkable...a psychiatric detective story of infinite skill” (The New York Times) Equus is a timeless classic and a cornerstone of contemporary drama that delves into the darkest recesses of human existence.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherScribner
Release dateFeb 1, 2011
ISBN9781451639575
Equus
Author

Peter Shaffer

One of the foremost playwrights of our time, Peter Shaffer has had seven plays produced on Broadway. He has won every major dramatic award as well as an Academy Award for the screenplay adaptation of his play Amadeus.

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Reviews for Equus

Rating: 4.029411607843137 out of 5 stars
4/5

408 ratings18 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A great play; a wonderful role for a young actor. I saw the original Broadway production; wish I could have seen Daniel Radcliffe's performance too. A boy, six horses, a psychiatrist, a girl, and parents. And religious fervor.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A powerful play full of raw brutality about a boy who blinds six horses. The play is told from the point of view of the psychiatrist attempting to understand the boy's psyche, and also bring him back to a state of "normal". The real story here, however, is the journey of the psychiatrist, and his own doubts about his field and whether he is doing the right thing by taking away the passion and leaving a normal life in its place. That, in my opinion, is the weakest thing about the play - not that it asks that question, but that it never asks the right person, the person who is truly in pain. Do you want to live in pain, so you'll have your passion and "worship"? Or do you prefer to be happy, even if a bit boring? Aside from that, the play is one of the most moving and terrifying works you will ever read (and even more so if you see it staged, with the lighting and the surreal horses). It is a powerful indictment of the destructive force that religion can play in our lives. It is also an exploration, though with an ambiguous message, about the role of parents in the lives of children. A must read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Equus reeks of wasted potential.
    The conceit -- that the world has become unromantic, mechanical, normal and one young man's attempt to break through it all -- was good. The set, the Noise, stage directions -- all good.
    But the dialogue and the story itself were hamfisted and mediocre. All of the characters except Alan are bland and one dimensional. It's like something Ballard would have written when he was having an off day. I haven't seen it played -- but I think even with a great company it would fail.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    “A child is born into a world of phenomena all equal in their power to enslave…Suddenly one strikes. Why? Moments snap together like magnets, forging a chain of shackles. Why? I can trace them. I can even, with time, pull them apart again. But why at the start they were ever magnetized at all – just those particular moments of experience and no others – I don’t know.”Alan Strang is a 16 year old boy who has blinded six horses and is currently undergoing psychiatric therapy. Alan’s case is a convoluted one of religion, sexuality, parental neuroses, and childhood fantasy. As the play moves along, the psychiatrist, Dysart, becomes more and more unsure of his role in ‘curing’ children. “The Normal is the good smile in a child’s eyes – all right. It is also the dead stare in a million adults…It is the Ordinary made beautiful; it is also the Average made lethal.” “In an ultimate sense I cannot know what I do in this place – yet I do ultimate things. Essentially I cannot know what I do – yet I do essential things. Irreversible, terminal things.”I was lucky enough to catch a performance a couple of years ago and highly recommend it. The horses costumes and movements were extremely well done. I find the story compelling on a lot of levels and am sure I will be thinking about this one for some time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What an amazing play, it is absolutely thought provoking, and very conceptual with very fascinating ideas one can talk about. It is quite disturbing, but I am into stories like this. if you aren't I would recommend not reading it. However, it is great to read such stories for insight on situations that do happen and instances where people are affected by certain traumas to do crazy things. Just my input.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I need to see this. Don't need to give horses a second try, though.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant and clever, Shaffer's play revolves around a give-and-take of innocence and violence, belief and insecurity. Even though the play is obviously meant to be seen on the stage, it comes across nearly as smartly on the page as the characters spiral forward. Few characters make for an easy reading experience, and the abstract nature of the effects--when you take the time to imagine them as originally created and directed--may be nearly as powerful as Shaffer envisioned them if given real attention.Not for young readers, this is a powerful and thought-provoking work well worth any reader's or audience-member's time and attention.Absolutely recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this play before looking up its background. I was surprised to learn its first production was in July 1973, over 41 years ago (vs. staged for that time). The ideas, the themes, the conflicts are just as fresh today as it is then. Named after the Latin word for horse, Equus is a psychological drama exploring what may influence a 17 year old teenager to perform a cruel and heinous act. Along the journey, we learn elements of his father, his mother, his teachings, his loneliness, his first date, his mundane life, his passion, his non-obvious intelligence but also his perceptiveness, and just as important – aspects of his court appointed psychologist who is tasked to unlock the cause of his actions and “fix” him. In the end, the psychologist challenges why should a person be normal – “Passion, you see, can be destroyed by a doctor. It cannot be created.” As with all plays, the settings are fully described, and this one opts for a minimalistic settings, where all actors remain visible within the ring stage, stepping in/out to act their parts. Horses play a prominent role in this and are also played by actors. The vibe of the setting is very modern, even in today’s standards.This is an effectively, tightly written play. I certainly would watch this production.One quote:On being a parent:“DORA (mom) [exploding]: And me? What about me?... What do you think I am?... I’m a parent, of course – so it doesn’t count. That’s a dirty word in here, isn’t it, ‘parent’?DYSART (psychologist): You know that’s not true.DORA: Oh, I know. I know, all right! I’ve heard it all my life. It’s our fault. Whatever happens, we did it. Alan’s just a little victim. He’s really done nothing at all! [Savagely.] What do you have to do in this world to get any sympathy - …?”
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A powerful play full of raw brutality about a boy who blinds six horses. The play is told from the point of view of the psychiatrist attempting to understand the boy's psyche, and also bring him back to a state of "normal". The real story here, however, is the journey of the psychiatrist, and his own doubts about his field and whether he is doing the right thing by taking away the passion and leaving a normal life in its place. That, in my opinion, is the weakest thing about the play - not that it asks that question, but that it never asks the right person, the person who is truly in pain. Do you want to live in pain, so you'll have your passion and "worship"? Or do you prefer to be happy, even if a bit boring? Aside from that, the play is one of the most moving and terrifying works you will ever read (and even more so if you see it staged, with the lighting and the surreal horses). It is a powerful indictment of the destructive force that religion can play in our lives. It is also an exploration, though with an ambiguous message, about the role of parents in the lives of children. A must read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Haunting and intelligent. Anything that deals with super strong religious themes will creep me out. Interesting personal struggles for the psychiatrist that involved strong dialogue for him. Glad I finally read this one. Would love to see it on the stage. The direction in the book was intriguing to me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this many years ago in college, and it sticks with me. And not just for Jenny Agutter's scenes in the film version! What made an impression was how the psychiatrist who is trying to treat the delusional young man is actually--in my opinion at least--jealous of him. Because, unlike the rational psychologist who believes only in reason, the young man has actually come face to face with his god.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    “A child is born into a world of phenomena all equal in their power to enslave…Suddenly one strikes. Why? Moments snap together like magnets, forging a chain of shackles. Why? I can trace them. I can even, with time, pull them apart again. But why at the start they were ever magnetized at all – just those particular moments of experience and no others – I don’t know.”Alan Strang is a 16 year old boy who has blinded six horses and is currently undergoing psychiatric therapy. Alan’s case is a convoluted one of religion, sexuality, parental neuroses, and childhood fantasy. As the play moves along, the psychiatrist, Dysart, becomes more and more unsure of his role in ‘curing’ children. “The Normal is the good smile in a child’s eyes – all right. It is also the dead stare in a million adults…It is the Ordinary made beautiful; it is also the Average made lethal.” “In an ultimate sense I cannot know what I do in this place – yet I do ultimate things. Essentially I cannot know what I do – yet I do essential things. Irreversible, terminal things.”I was lucky enough to catch a performance a couple of years ago and highly recommend it. The horses costumes and movements were extremely well done. I find the story compelling on a lot of levels and am sure I will be thinking about this one for some time.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This play has sat on my shelf for eight years after getting it for a dollar at a theater flea market. (It's a Samuel French edition, but from London; the size is all wrong and the paper is all funny.) It seemed like a good idea at the time, since coming out of high school I self-educated myself in playwriting by simply reading every play I'd heard of. Heard of this one! But then I just sat there with it. A couple Saturdays ago I pulled it down to read. The play is getting a lot of press right now with a new production, so I wondered what it would be like.It's fine, turns out, is theatrical in the sense that it's hard to grasp the impact of several scenes without staging. There's also very good use of a chorus device, which is a favorite, and I believe that would have great impact on stage too. I like thinking that the writing was inspired by rumored true events, because I feel inspired by those kinds of too-true stories as well, and know they're hard to implement. Psychology and violence and sex and religion are all really thick themes, and here they're blended very seamlessly to all feel like the same impossible problem. That's a powerful feeling, but also requires some kind of conclusion to really be a lasting one. Mostly, though, we just get some 70s angst, which is different than an ending.I think today the play feels really put in its time. It's overwhelmingly male, and intellectual shock in 1973 is now what makes mainstream theater look like theater. It's hard to find plays that don't look like all other plays. It doesn't make them bad plays, but you wish there was something else.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I was quite excited to find an old copy of this in a used book store recently, and read it almost immediately. I knew very little of the play before I picked it up; I found it passionate, emotional, and haunting. Shaffer delves into the human psyche and passions with extraordinary skill. Equus is one of the best literary works I have read in a good while, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A wonderful play, creepy as hell. When it comes to the States I'd see it in a heartbeat.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Just reread Equus, by Peter Shaffer. Been a while since I read this, but it still stands up.Equus is nominally the story of Alan Strang, a disturbed 17 year old who has been remanded into psychiatric care after blinding six horses by stabbing them in the eyes. In the psychiatric hospital, he is placed under the care of Martin Dysart, a child psychatrist, who attempts to work out why Alan has done what he has done - but in the process is made to face some truths closer to home.While the play's title and narrative drive come from Strang and his actions, it's the examination of his own life, and wider truths, that Dysart is forced into that become the overall theme of the work. Ultimately, the play asks questions about the place of spiritual passion in modern life, and whether it is better to have a dark passion than to have none at all. Controversial when first staged, it still retains a lot of its power to shock and jar; Shaffer wields that power to direct the reader/viewer towards the questions that Dysart finds himself wrestling with at the play's close.Shaffer's play offers no definitive answers, but the questions it asks are provocative and worth considering. I've never seen this performed on the stage, but I imagine it takes on even more power from being seen as originally intended rather than read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an excellent, excellent play, which one would not expect from the synopsis: a boy has to see a psychiatrist after poking the eyes out of all the horses in stable. As an exploration of human shame and sexuality, it is pretty unique and very interesting. This was the only book my entire senior AP lit class liked, which says something about its ability to appeal to different people.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've always known this from reputation, but never seen or read it before. Looks like a great piece to act, and it was a good career move for Daniel Radcliffe.

Book preview

Equus - Peter Shaffer

SCRIBNER

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1973, 1974 by Peter Shaffer

Copyright renewed © 2001, 2002 by Peter Shaffer

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

First published in Great Britain in 1973 by Andre Deutsch

First published in the U.S. in 1974 by Atheneum

First Scribner trade paperback edition 2005

SCRIBNER and design are trademarks of Macmillan Library Reference USA, Inc., used under license by Simon & Schuster, the publisher of this work.

DESIGNED BY ERICH HOBBING

Manufactured in the United States of America

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-8730-2

ISBN-10: 0-7432-8730-4

FOR PAUL WITH LOVE

A NOTE ON THE TEXT

What appears in this text is a description of the first production of Equus at the National Theatre in July 1973. In making this description, I am partly satisfying myself, but also partly bowing to demand.

When people buy the published text of a new play, they mostly want to recall the experience they received in the theatre. That experience is composed, of course, not merely of the words they heard, but the gestures they saw, and the lighting, and the look of the thing.

There are, however, evils attendant on this sort of description. It can imprison a play in one particular stylization. Just as seriously, it can do a real injustice to the original Director, by incorporating his ideas without truly acknowledging them. Worse, if the Director is as inventive as John Dexter, it can actually seem to minimize those ideas, just by flatly setting down on paper what was far from flat on the stage, and listing inexpressively details of his work which, in accumulation, became deeply expressive.

Dexter directs powerfully through suggestion. Into the theatrical spaces he contrives, flows the communal imagination of an audience. He enables it to charge the action of a play with electric life. He is a master of gesture and of economy. Aesthetically, his founding fathers are Noh Drama and Berthold Brecht: the plain plank; the clear light; the great pleasure in a set-piece. I do not mean by this that he would ever direct a single minute of physical action which detracted from the meaning of a play, or in some grand visual sense subverted it—he sharply dislikes effect isolated from context—but he is naturally and rightly drawn to plays which demand elaborate physical actions to complete them.

The Royal Hunt of the Sun and Black Comedy, both of which he directed, are such pieces: and so is Equus. Their visual action is to me as much a part of the play as the dialogue. I suppose my head has always been full of images. The gold masks staring hopefully and then in gathering despair at the sky, at the end of The Royal Hunt of the Sun, had been part of my imagination ever since I first saw a Peruvian funeral mask with its elongated eyes and red-smeared cheeks. Brindsley Miller in the lit-up darkness of Black Comedy, slowly moving the spiky legs of a Regency chair one inch before the innocent face of his spinster neighbour, had tiptoed that very journey in my head as I sat at my desk. But such images, like the Field of Ha-ha in Equus with its mist and nettles, still have to be externalized. In John Dexter’s courageous and precise staging, they acquire a vibrant and unforgettable life.

While I am confessing debts, let me mention John Napier who created the tough, bright masks of horsedom; Andy Phillips who lit them superbly; and above all, Claude Chagrin, who animated them. She created, with the help of six human actors, a stable of Superhorses to stalk through the mind.

Finally, out of a fine company I must set down the names of three actors who made the first performance of this play live with a very special intensity. Alec McCowen’s Dysart touched audiences deeply with its dry agony. Peter Firth’s Alan left them sighing with admiration. Nicholas Clay’s horse Nugget was, quite simply, unforgettable.

Rehearsing a play is making the word flesh. Publishing a play is reversing the process. I can only hope this book is not too unjust to these brilliant people.

P.S.

A NOTE ON THE PLAY

One weekend over two years ago, I was driving with a friend through bleak countryside. We passed a stable. Suddenly he was reminded by it of an alarming crime which he had heard about recently at a dinner party in London. He knew only one horrible detail, and his complete mention of it could barely have lasted a minute—but it was enough to arouse in me an intense fascination.

The act had been committed several years before by a highly disturbed young man. It had deeply shocked a local bench of magistrates. It lacked, finally, any coherent explanation.

A few months later my friend died. I could not verify what he had said, or ask him to expand it. He had given me no name, no place, and no time. I don’t think he knew them. All I possessed was his report of a dreadful event, and the feeling it engendered in me. I knew very strongly that I wanted to interpret it in some entirely personal way. I had to create a mental world in which the deed could be made comprehensible.

Every person and incident in Equus is of my own invention, save the crime itself; and even that I modified to accord with what I feel to be acceptable theatrical proportion. I am grateful now that I have never received confirmed details of the real story, since my concern has been more and more with a different kind of exploration.

I have been lucky, in doing final work on the play, to have enjoyed the advice and expert comment of a distinguished child psychiatrist. Through him I have tried to keep things real in a more naturalistic sense. I have also come to perceive that psychiatrists are an immensely varied breed, professing immensely varied methods and techniques. Martin Dysart is simply one doctor in one hospital. I must take responsibility for him, as I do for his patient.

P.S.

EQUUS

EQUUS

Characters:

MARTIN DYSART, a psychiatrist

ALAN STRANG

FRANK STRANG, his father

DORA STRANG, his mother

HESTHER SALOMON, a magistrate

JILL MASON

HARRY DALTON, a stable owner

A YOUNG HORSEMAN

A NURSE

SIX ACTORS-including the Young Horseman, who also plays Nugget—appear as Horses.

Equus was first presented by The National Theatre at The Old Vic Theatre on 26 July 1973, with the following cast:

and

Neil Cunningham, David Graham, David Kincaid, Maggie Riley, Rosalind Shanks, Veronica Sowerby, Harry Waters

The main action of the play takes place in Rokesby Psychiatric Hospital in southern England. The time is the present.

The play is divided into numbered scenes, indicating a change of time or locale or mood. The action, however, is continuous.

THE SETTING

A square of wood set on a circle of wood.

The square resembles a railed boxing ring. The rail, also of wood, encloses three sides. It is perforated on each side by an opening. Under the rail are a few vertical slats, as if in a fence. On

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