“Never have I seen an actor blend more seamlessly with a play and create something truly unique, truly artful.  Fortes was the backbone of the production.” Greg Fox ★★★★★

“It is hard to imagine that student productions, in terms of drama, can be more accomplished than this highly ambitious and remarkably unpretentious offering.” Olivia Williams ★★★★★

Equus ★★★★★

Review by Greg Fox

During the production of Equus, I saw some of the finest acting I have witnessed in a long time.  However, that was precisely the problem:  I saw it.  There are some wonderful things happening in this show, and they deserve recognition.  Unfortunately, sometimes it is also necessary to recognize when a show simply could have been better.

Peter Shaffer’s Equus is an intense and riveting psychological exploration of the case of seventeen-year-old Alan Strang (Joe Murphy), a boy who has blinded six horses with an iron spike.  Much of the play deals with the struggles of the boy’s psychiatrist, Martin Dysart (Edward Fortes).  The story itself is troubling, intense, and riveting, and it would take a lot of work to make a bad production of it.

This was, in fact, a rather good production.  The simple stage with its raised platform and six chairs served as a variety of settings by simply rearranging the furniture and adjusting the lights.  This did an excellent job of setting the mood for each scene.  However, after some of the transitions, Murphy wound up in the dark, speaking lines it seemed he should have been visible to deliver.

Murphy’s energy was palpable throughout the performance.  He played his part with conviction, if not convincingly.  In fact, it was at the most intense moments of the play that performance got the better of him.  Don’t get me wrong, his portrayal was sincere and forceful, but it was almost too much.  He spent the last five minutes of Act One just shouting.  There was no variance, and eventually, I ceased to be entranced and instead worried whether Murphy’s voice would hold out.  There were similar moments throughout the second half too.  Eventually, constant shouting gets old.

There were similar setbacks with other members of the cast as well.  Alan’s father (Tim Kieley) seemed to play a wooden caricature of a father rather than an individual.  Conversely, Alan’s mother (Helen Slaney) seemed to be trying too hard, as if she did not know what to do with her body when upset, and chose to shake convulsively.

A welcome surprise was Ruby Thomas as Jill.  She came at just the right time to give life and warmth to the show.  Another bright spot was the horses:  black clad figures wearing a sort of framed horse mask.  Unfortunately, a couple of characters, including Kieley, were double cast to play these horses, and it was odd to see Alan’s father don the mask and detract from the solemnity.

The exception to any of this criticism was Fortes.  Never have I seen an actor blend more seamlessly with a play and create something truly unique, truly artful.  Fortes was the backbone of the production.  In his direct addresses, he drew the audience in with ease, and with a hushed, yet never inaudible, voice he made them listen.  When he did raise his voice it meant something.  This show is worth seeing if only for his masterful performance.

Equus ★★★★★

Review by Olivia Williams

Do not see this play if you fancy an evening of escapism, or if you are of a delicate disposition. Having been recently performed in London and attracted much publicity with Daniel Radcliffe (yes, Harry Potter) as the horse mutilating, horse worshipping anti-hero of Equus, you may vaguely know the plot. I wouldn’t want to spoil anything; I simply recommend that you go and see it.  It is hard to imagine that student productions, in terms of drama, can be more accomplished than this highly ambitious and remarkably unpretentious offering.

Like all plays about ‘weird’ and evil people, the fascinating thing for us is usually understanding how extreme minds think, in what circumstances evil acts happen and whether we could ever envisage doing such a thing ourselves.

It’s not a shocking play for the childish sake of getting a reaction, it is genuinely thought-provoking. There are many threads in this heavily textured script and I would imagine if I watched it several more times, new things would become prominent. To summarise though, it picked up on the role of fantasy in childhood, the debatably arbitrary lines between acceptable and unacceptable sexuality, Old Testament fervour, the value of worship, responsibility for evil, familial claustrophobia, loneliness and the accusation that Philip Larkin famously put forward in This Be The Verse is raised here, as a question.  It’s a truly heady mixture.

As a genre of perversion, bestiality is given scant attention these days. We’re all far too preoccupied with paedophiles and other human-on-human action. Bestiality seems rather passé, something medieval peasants did when they got bored tending sheep perhaps. This might be what makes this story so arresting though, as it explores our primitiveness and our primal urges. One of the many questions raised out of this becomes the extent to which our behaviour would change if we knew nobody was watching.

With the power of the script, it is rather difficult to extricate the acting and overall production from it. However, the fact that they showcased the script so admirably is surely a testament to the subtlety of the actors. As you might imagine, the strong performance of the main character is pivotal and Joe Murphy was highly impressive. There were a couple of staccato moments, which I’m sure will be ironed out and in some of the manic moments, the dialogue was lost. Needless to say, this was not flawless, but it was relentlessly engaging.