Equus is an interesting play. Tortured, disturbing, melodramatic and ends in a solution that is in some ways a little too pat, but it is thought-provoking.
I was a touch cynical about watching this, given the enormous publicity and hype that surrounds it, but shoved the cynic back into his cave, and I’m glad I went in the end. It’s hard to describe the feelings it evokes, but it was a very powerful, dramatic production, with a stark, minimalist stage and props, and the horses merely steel masks on actors.
We were perched high up in one corner, near the roof, and craning to see over the railing in front certainly didn’t help create atmosphere. The memory of the event is really a series of impressions, smoke and lights, glints off steel masks and feet, collapsing into darkness. I can’t analyse the meaning behind it, because I’m not quite sure what I make of it, but it’s definitely intriguing. I did sometimes feel the acting was little stiff; they were playing their parts rather than being the characters, which reduced the intensity for me and made it less absorbing, but I definitely think it was worth watching.