J AE quu s" -contInue. d the care of a doctor-friend in a during the summertime Pelopon­ hooves. They are botn part f)f pleasure, Indeed, as Dr. Dysar.t, local psychiatric hospital. nesian vacati&ns on which he the main action and mysterious who-unwillingly, of oourse, as in The youth's shocking act has drags his poor wife along. fringe figllres heard, from time al) good thrillers--takes on this been to drive steel spikes through Even that, and other aspect3 of to time, pawing the ground­ bewilderIng- case. the eyes of six horses entrusted the dector's life, might appear a heard, I might add, al()ng with Frances Sternhagen turns In to dti~ care on weekends, when trifle pat If it weron't for Shaf­ some damned annoying mood­ another of her striking petform­ he has a job as a stable boy. fer's skill as a dramatist and his m "sic sound effects that might ance by playing the heartbroken strong sense of theater. ha.ve been borrowed from "The but anything but mushy mother. Why! Well, sex Is involved, T'he scene, designed hy John Bride of Frankenstein." along with the mother's powerful Napier, is a sort of amph;theater P eter Firth, who crea ted tha Marian Selcl e3 is cool and COlll­ r eligl()lIs in fluence, but I sh.m't in "ldch several dozen sppctators part abroad, is very fine as the mendable as the syn'jlathetic t ell you more, for that's Shaf­ (extras ), as well as most of the odd patient who can, at first, judge, a foil for the soul-search­ :fer's job, one he undertook on principals when they are not only communicate by singing th'! ing doctor. And Michael Higgins hearing of such a happenIng, directly involved, look down from most obnoxious television jingles, is con vincing as the father who nev~r explained, 'll few years ago. three rows of seats on a fenced­ but who gradually tells and acts catches, and is caught by, tho What makes the play especially in inclosure. This enclosure serves out his fears and beha.viors, boy and the girl at a skin flick. compelling is the role of the both the consultation room and all which include a uude love scene Shaffer de(tJy blends humor doctor, a troubled child psycho­ the places summoned up as the with the pretty Roberta Maxwell, and a few civilized observations logist with a poor marriage a)1d youth'<s story comes> out bi t by bit. s handler at the horse farm. epigrams of a sort, ioto the whol~ a nagging conviction that the . Since horses, or the horse it­ But the more demanding role to make "Eql1l1s" a palatable and youth's act of passion, though self as a R"od object. figure so Is that of the questing, aggra­ powerful entertainment, a sort admittedly unacceptable, was importantly in the work, they are v.ated and eventually successful of original detective story, in somehow mOTe honorable, even represented by actors in brown (if y-ou can call it that, for th'i! spite of iU3 shocking premise. godlike, than the doctor's own practice clothes and wearing play has a wry finis'll) analy·st. I :flIrtations with Greek mythology stylized, skeletal horse heads and And Anthony HopkiIl3 is a great \ THE CHRJSTIAN SUENCE MoNITOR and allusiOns that range from TV November 4. 1974 commercial jingles to mythical cen· I taurs. Although the work is multi­ I John Beaufod layered, the expression is a model of I clarity. John Napier's visual design is I spare and clinically functional: a I central square platform in what is apparently a teaching-hospital lec­ I Sri ia t British import ture room, with tiers of spectators upstage. By slight rearrangement of leather benches, and with the aid of Shaffer's inventive 'Equus' hits Broadway Andy Phillips's ingenious ligh ting, th e scene becomes a room in the Strang's house, or the stable in which the New York In a program note, Mr. Shaffer crime occurs. Essential to the mount­ . comments as follows on "the dreadful ing tension and mythic atmosphere I "Equus," the powerfully moving event" which promoted its writing: "I are the noble steeds, portrayed by I new British drama at the Plymouth knew very strongly that I wanted to human actors wearing wire·sculp· Theater, brilliantly employs the ele­ interpret It on some entirely personal tured hooves and heads. ments of a clinical case hlstory to way. I had to create a mental world in As the central figures, doctor and probe a deep personal tragedy. At the whlch the deed could be made com­ patient are admirably served by Mr. same time that Dr. Martin Dysart prehensible." Even the crime itself Hopkins and young Mr. Firth (the (Anthony Hopkins) is untangling the the author "modified to accord with original Alan of the Old Vic produc· mental 41sturbance that lies behlnd what I feel to be acceptable theatrical tion). The initial stand-off, the grow­ the commission of a horrible crime by proportion. " ing confidence, the turning of tables teenage Alan Strang (Peter Firth), "Equus" consistently respects this when Alan becomes interrogator - the doctor comes face to face with hls "theatrical proportion." In Its most all the minutiae of an unfolding own demons of frustration and· des­ extravagant theatrical reach - the relationship are meticulously and ex· pair. mimed movements of the horses and pressively portrayed as the troubled Such is Peter Shaffer's skill as the simulated reenactment of Alan's man concentrates his professional dramatist and humane observer that secret nocturnal rides - the produc­ skills on solving the plight of the he Is able to convey Alan's capacity tion does not exceed the artistic grasp troubled boy. An actor of tremendous for an ecstacy beyond anything of of Mr. Shaffer and director John inner resource, Mr. Hopkins reveals whlch Dysart is capable. In restoring Dexter. Even the play's nude scene the torment of a frustrated profes­ Alan to mental health, the psy­ seems intended for more than merely sional with an unhappy maITIage who chiatrist realizes he must exorcise the sensational purposes. has assauged his frustrations in a love ecstacy along with the dark drives In tracing the case history of Alan affair with ancient Greece. For his which led to Alan's vicious act of Strang, Mr. Shaffer illuminates the part, Mrs. Firth displays the con­ blinding six horses. As "Equus" un­ more complex ordeal of Martin Dy­ cealment, naivete, cunning, vivid per­ folds, Mr. Shaffer explores a variety sart. "Equus" (the word means ceptions, and dangerous neuroticism of motives: Alan's freakish religious "horse" in Latin) might be called a of the young patient. and sexual complexes; the domestic psychological mystery play, since Its "Equus" is brought arrestingly to conflicts between a sensitive, con­ technical process consists of explor­ stage life by a cast whose principals ventionally respectable mother and ing the genesis of a crime. The artistic include Marian Seldes as an enlight· an authoritarian, atheist father. How achievement lies not merely In what ened magistrate, Frances Sternhagen damagingly the discords of seeming the confllct unfolds but in what It and Michael Higgins as Alan's per· family tranqUility can aggravate the suggest about the human mystery plexed parents, Roberta Maxwell as senslb1l1ties of an impressionable itself. the boy's would·be girl friend, and child is one of the themes of thls , As a stunning p!ece of inventive Everett McGill doubling as rider and precisely designed and structured play-making, "Equus" calls on all the steed. "Equus" is a remarkable play play. resources of imagery, symbolism, stirringly acted. PAGE 202 .