Does anybody know anything about the play Equus that Dan is playing in?

Answer 1

Yes.

Equus is the story of a phychatrist [Dysart] who must face a crises around his ability to cure a young man [Alan] who has blinded 6 horses in one night.

During the play you learn about the people and events that shaped Alan and why he did what he did.

Read the play it is a facinating story!

Answer 2

Equus is by a brilliant playwright named Peter Schaffer. Schaffer tends to write "fill in the blank" kind of plays. I read that he and a friend were driving through the English countryside - and his friend pointed out a stable and said that a stable hand who worked there had blinded several of the horses. Schaffer then wrote the play Equus. There is no fact behind the way his story ends - just what he imagined COULD have been the reason for it. The young boys parents are a bit pitiful - and the shrink is a bit rattled by all of it. There is also a young "love interest" The play is about puberty going wrong. The horses in the play are depicted by humans wearing large horse heads - made of metal. Pretty eerie.

Schaffer also wrote Amadeus. Knowing that Saliare's (sp) work was very popular about the same time as Mozart's- and knowing that Mozart pushed Saliare out of a job (I think) at one point - and also knowing that Saliare ended up in a mental institution - Schaffer came up with the story. A lot of it - again - not based on fact - but more or less just "filling in the blanks"

Answer 3

As is true with most of Shaffer's plays, (at least the ones I'm familiar with) the theme of the story seems to be the search for a God and the destruction of the God once it is found.

Alan (the character Dan's playing) replaces his mother's Christianity with a religion based on the horses. He calls the horse God Equus. When Equus gets in the way of Alan having a normal human relationship with a girl Alan blinds the horses in order to blind Equus.

It is an extremely powerful and emotional play, with some strong characters that will really stretch most people's talents.
I always wanted Alan, till one day I woke up and realized i am WWWAAAYYYY to old and am now a whole lot more likely to be Martin Dysart. Heck, in a few years my son will be too old to play Alan, I'm probably not up to the acting talent of either. I'd cast me as the stable master.

Answer 4

You've already got some solid answers here.

I think that "Equus" is one of the greatest English-language plays of the late 20th century. Shaffer is a tremendous writer, and one who has never been afraid to tackle difficult and complex issues.

In "Equus," young Alan's repressive upbringing -- complete with a huge dose of religious gobbledygook -- combines with an early love of horses, and results in his creating a personal FAITH out of the two.

The play would have been interesting if Alan's journey were the only one described; what elevates it in to the realm of pure genius is the manner in which Shaffer brings Alan together with Dr. Dysart, a skilled psychiatrist who is fighting his OWN personal demons. Dysart feels that, for all his education and intelligence, his life is lacking in PASSION, which is something that Alan has in abundance. And, ironically, in order to "cure" Alan, Dysart much strip him of that passion, for which he feels terribly guilty.

MAN, it's a great play! Some day, some enlightened director is going to cast me to play Dysart.

Answer 5

My personal opinion: the play is fantastic and everybody should go and see it. Dan is amazing, but so are all the other actors.

The play has just started, so you still have until June to go and see it in the West End. And I would recommend everybody to go and see it. Except for young childred or people who get freaked out with a bit of nudity on stage.

Answer 6

Here's a wacky notion. Why don't you go to the library and read it? Then you could actually form an opinion of your own.