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Equus Review

Site specific theatre is a concept with which we are largely unfamiliar at Clifton. We have our Redgrave Theatre for a start. The proscenium arch theatre with its 323 seats has accommodated countless House play, school play and junior play events over the years, not to mention the large scale commercial shows that perform there. We are of course thankful for our grander spaces. Sometimes though, perhaps we forget the architectural nature of space itself; what that can do to enhance atmosphere and mood.

Clearly, this year’s Sixth Form play, placed much emphasis on space. The fives courts where the piece, ‘Equus’ by Peter Shaffer, was performed, helped enormously to describe and illustrate the drama.

For those that don’t know it, Equus which was written in the early seventies, is a psycho-drama which tells the story of Alan Strang, a boy whose repressed upbringing has caused him to develop a fetish for horses or at least, to put it less facetiously, a worship for the shackled inner horse spirit that is ‘Equus’ (if you favour Strang’s distorted notion of God). In a decade where the nurture vs nature debate was hotly contested, this is reminiscent of past philosophical battlegrounds but even if the ideology of ‘Equus’ is a little dated, the story of the boy, pushed by misguided parents into self-imprisonment is still one that rings true.

Seats were distributed by invitation, and the makeshift nature of the space meant that the audience was intimate to say the least. A really ‘studio’ feel was created. The acting was first rate particularly in some sequences. Dave Benger did a valiant job of trying to conjure the Britishness of the quirky and dysfunctional Strang and it was always going to be a challenge not to allow the character to drift into pseudo-mad acting, a challenge which the cast seemed aware of; there was a sense pervading the production that the alien atmosphere of Shaffer’s world had been carefully considered and bravely constructed. There was a coldness to Strang’s characterisation that I rather liked and the best moments were to be found in the hypnosis episode. Wil Rushworth’s Dysart was quietly spoken by contrast and he managed to get the ambiguity between psychiatrist and patient well, albeit sometimes drifting into a sameness of tone which belied the putative nature of the Dysart character. However, weigh that up against the gravitas of the older man, struggling to equate his own seemingly boring life with the wildness of Strang’s visions and you have motive for some sharp actorly choices. This along with other notable moments from Grace Humphries and Esther Bebb and an attentive and committed cast (apologies for not naming all of them for they all deserve plaudits) truly evoked the world of this strange play.

Credit to everyone here for pulling this out of the hat so late in the big exam term. Hopefully, this will not be a ‘one-off’. The memory of the fire-brand eyes of the impactful horses heads (shipped direct from the West End original production so I believe) will burn its imprint on us, like this fiery and meaningful production, for some time.

Mr Morris
Director of Drama

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