Equus

I thank Mr. Hawkes for his review, and I would like the chance to clarify a couple of points.

Firstly, Schaffer demands in his script that all the cast be on the stage at the same time. There is a clear intention behind this, which we felt was important to preserve, even though the OFS space is admittedly rather small.

Secondly, Shaffer also asks that most props are mimed, including the hoof picks and the horse brushes. The lack of realism is a key focus in the play - hence the metal horse masks and unrealistic staging.

Harry Phillips. Producer 3 Feb 2010

An extraordinary descent into madness, this play by Peter Shaffer is famous as the play that Harry Potter disrobed for. But it is far more than that. This is a powerful piece that is unafraid to plumb the depths of a seriously disturbed mind. Some of the scenes are quite shocking, and Joe Murphy, who plays Alan Strang, pulls no punches in his depiction.

Alan has committed a shocking crime and has been sent to psychiatrist Martin Dysart, played by Edward Fortes. Over the course of the play Dysart tries to examine the boy’s psyche and investigate why he did what he did.

Edward Fortes gives a strong performance, with some very good speeches, but is always, inevitably, upstaged by Joe Murphy, who gives an extraordinary performance, with a brilliant grasp of the tortured character of Alan, shuffling and fidgeting almost like a horse as he stares the audience down and raging with frightening repressed emotion at Dysart. Joe has played Hamlet and Dr Faustus before and this has obviously stood him in good stead for this performance. His feverish control of this tortured character is remarkable.

The direction was mostly good. The climactic scenes with the horses were quite brilliant and incredibly powerfully directed and staged. But the interviewing scenes were a little bland at times. The staging didn’t help, with a large raised centre platform for Dysart and his interviewee, leaving very little room at the sides for flashback scenes at the same time, especially with the decision to have the entire cast sitting in darkness at the sides as well when not on stage. This meant that at times it felt like the action was crowded out and pushed into the wings. It worked far better when Dysart stepped to the sides and the action moved onto the centre platform.

The horses were well designed and very animated. Yet there were some strange absences in the prop department. When grooming the horses, the stable master explained the various brushes and the portentous hoof pick. But his hands were glaringly empty. How hard would it have been to get a few miscellaneous brushes on stage? With so much trouble taken over the design of the horses, it was a shame to let it down with such a small thing.

But these are little niggles and did not detract from my overall thorough enjoyment of the play: the passionate performances on stage, and the climactic explosions of drama. This was a brilliant play and I would highly recommend it.

Michael Hawkes 3 Feb 2010

Daily Info

Location

The Old Fire Station

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