'Equus' cast gets close to real horses

Kip Chapman, with Shoman, was in awe of Jools Topp's way with horses. Picture / Carolyn Robertson

Rehearsals for the Auckland Theatre Company's latest play began with a field trip to a horse ranch.

Actor Kip Chapman, director Colin McColl and choreographer Shona McCullagh spent half a day at Jools Topp's Liberty Circle Ranch, to gain insight into the equine character.

It was a fitting start for a company about to raise the curtain on Equus, Peter Shaffer's modern classic.

In Equus, the audience is confronted by Alan Strang (Chapman), a boy who has blinded six horses. Psychiatrist Martin Dyshart (Peter Elliott) struggles to understand why Alan did it, and questions the absence of passion and worship in his own life.

"We are so lucky," says McColl. "When you work on different theatre projects, you go into areas you might never get to explore in your everyday life. This time around it just happens to be horses and psychiatry."

The trio are buzzing after their close encounter of the equine kind. Jools Topp is a practitioner of natural horsemanship, based on the premise of not dominating the animals with fear but rather instilling trust between animal and human, says McCullagh.

"Jools' relationship with the horses is just extraordinary to see," says McColl. "She rides bareback, without a bridle, guiding them just by shifting her weight. Then she also just hangs out in the field with the horses, being with them. But it wasn't just seeing what she does with horses, but what she had Kip doing, that was amazing."

When he first got the role of Alan Strang, Chapman took himself off to the library, and found a book on horses. His day at the ranch turned everything he had read on its head.

"I was comfortable around horses until I went to Jools' place. After listening to her, I was totally in awe of them and worried about freaking them out or making them uncomfortable. But she showed me some things, and it gave me an idea of what a close relationship with a horse could be like."

In a play where six actors are cast as horses, the challenge was on to portray the creatures without resorting to pantomime or what McColl describes as the "florid" style of the original 1970s production, where the actors wore elaborate wire head-dresses.

McColl and McCullagh are satisfied they have met the challenge, paring the representation back in design and movement.

"When left to their own devices, horses don't do very much," says McColl. "They have a stillness about the, but built into that is always being ready for flight. It's that essence we are trying to get, rather than to mimic their every move. And to Alan the creatures are half-horse, half-god, and that's what we have gone for."

"It's about the being, rather than the doing," adds McCullagh. "My job is really crafting the shapes and movement of the horses, and I'm primarily concerned to make the actors look equine rather than human."

Equus packs a punch, and McColl is unapologetic for a night he says will set off depth charges in the hearts and minds of the audience.

"Why Equus?" says McColl. "We need to present plays that have a life force in them and an inherent theatricality. For me, Equus had the right theatricality and right gravitas for its place between Niu Sila and Roger Hall's Taking Off.

"I thought it was worthy of a revival. It's interesting to look at something 30 years after it was done originally. It was quite florid, very choric and almost anal in its stage directions, and we've tried to make it more spare and contemporary.

"And it's just fantastic story-telling. It unfolds like a thriller, and is very well-crafted by Shaffer. You can tell this is a man who likes detective stories."

"It's not a whodunit, but a why-done-it," says Chapman. "Shaffer doesn't judge Alan, and ultimately he leaves it up to the audience to decide."

On Stage

* What: Equus
* Where and when:Maidment Theatre, Apr 14-May