★★★★★ by Ifan Llewelyn
Are people born mad? Or do they have madness thrust upon them? This is the central question that perplexed audiences when Peter Shaffer’s play first hit the stage of the National Theatre back in 1973. After happening across a newspaper headline detailing the story of a 17-year-old boy who blinded six horses, it was also the question that compelled Shaffer to write Equus. In the hands of director Ned Bennett, this production manages to eclipse its playtext by flat-palmedly serving a galloping revival that leaves you panting.
Set against three draped white walls, onto a bare Trafalgar Studios stage walks psychiatrist Martin Dysart lost in thoughts of his troubled patient Alan Strang, expressing a conflicted adoration for the monstrous act Strang has committed that has unshackled him from the dull normality he himself finds himself subsumed in. From his few first perplexed utterances it’s clear that Zubin Varla has mesmeric stage presence, with the slight lilt in his speech lulling you to truly invest in his thoughts. Beside him sways the young Strang, played by Ethan Kai, with his muscled arms swaying beside him as he nuzzles with his Equus. Caressing his mane, staring deep into his eyes, Kai’s subtle yet passionate physicality is stirring.
These few first moments also introduce us to choreographer and movement director Shelley Maxwell’s work in evoking the horses so crucial to this play. Twisting and convulsing onto the stage, shoulders thrust forward and clenched fists reaching outwards, Nugget trots on stage with conviction. From the outstretched rear leg to the blank, heavy-browed expression, our cast of players become undeniably equine. Semi-naked they stand with nostrils flaring and muscles flexing like a line up of racehorses before the ringing of the claxon. This production is also a true master class in both lighting and sound direction, each seamlessly bringing nuanced depth to each scene, sketching out their potency with painstaking precision.
Jessica Hung Han Yun’s flickering, pigmented shutters of blue and red light are unlike any seen before on a British stage, with the final few moments truly transcending what we think great lighting can achieve. The play’s score delicately shimmers in and out at the hand of Giles Thomas, who provides a soundscape that doesn’t take a single misstep. Together they provide an experience that sends you reeling in your seat, drawing you into our central character’s psychogenic moral conundrum.
Glittered with biblical imagery and demonic undertones, Bennett renders his troubled young patient somewhere between the messiah and the antichrist. With a keen sense for the homo-erotic and the gender politics at play throughout Equus, he brings an infinitely layered approach to the text that’s now reaching its fifth decade and perhaps showing its age.
Equus is running at Trafalgar Studios, Westminster SW1A 2DY until September 7th.
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