KEY POINTS:
The news that Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe was doing the full monty in a West End production of Equus has triggered a worldwide resurgence of interest in Peter Shaffer's 34-year-old play.
There is a strange correlation between the extraordinary popularity of Harry Potter and the enduring appeal of Equus. Both works tap into our yearning to reach beyond the mundane routines of daily existence and experience some form of transcendence.
Equus offers a vision of transcendence that is a far cry from the whimsical magic of Hogwarts.
The play delves into the warped psychology of a 17-year-old boy who blinds six horses with a metal spike. To escape from over-bearing parents and a deadening job the boy has invented a private religion in which an ecstatic form of horse worship is fused with fragments of fundamentalist Christianity.
Ashley Hawkes convincingly inhabits the boy's fractured psyche. His performance captures the violent mood swings of adolescence as he switches from glowering insolence to moments of child-like vulnerability and sudden eruptions of psychotic rage. Most impressively he manages to convey the frenzied passions that fuel the obsession with horses.
His parents initially seem like a pair of J.K. Rowling's "muggles" who are annoyed to find themselves drawn into a world they cannot understand.
But the parents are humanised and given depth through sympathetic performances.
Annie Whittle brings a neurotic edginess to her portrayal of an indulgent mother, while Patrick Wilson highlights the comic potential of a father whose puritanical socialism is compromised by his fondness for porno films.
The story centres on the psychiatrist who must unravel the causes of the boy's psychosis.
Although Phil Adams has a commanding presence he is miscast in this role. He seems too young for the part and lacks the emotional range needed to carry off his identity crisis as he starts to envy the Dionysian passions of his youthful patient.
The appeal of the production comes from the play's exuberant theatricality that boldly juxtaposes naturalism, direct address to the audience and spectacular ritual.
Jesse Peach's direction sometimes struggles to cope with the play's abrupt switches in tone, but the production really finds its feet in its thrilling evocation of the mysterious, ecstatic world that is created by the boy's communion with the horses.
Review
* What: Equus
* Where: Glen Eden Playhouse
* Reviewer: Paul Simei-Barton
