Equus

Tonight saw a trip to see 'Equus' at The Geilgud Theatre, yes, the play in which Daniel Radcliffe runs around on stage naked. He wasn't naked for very long so let's get that out of the way right up front. There are very few photos online of this production that don't include Daniel's chest so it's easy to spot the selling point.

I didn't really know what to expect from this play and early on I had a flush of angst that it might be full of nasty people like in the Hampton plays seen recently, but it was very different. Perfect casting for Richard Griffiths as the aimiable child pyschologist trying to help a 17 year old boy out of a nightmare of his own creation. Jenny Agutter played a magistrate who wants to help the boy rather than send him to prison for blinding six horses. And then there are the boy's strangely ill-matched parents and the sort of girlfriend. And six horses.

After the first 10-15 minutes I was snared as the story unfolded, not seeing where the play was going with all the little and seemingly natural twists and turns as the psychologist tries to find out and understand what has happened to the boy. I'm not sure I fully believed the parents - why woud an atheist with obvious problems with religion marry a nice catholic girl? Obviously they're partly a plot device to keep the play moving as we discover more, like in all the best detective stories, but they were also the worried, stressed and confused parents the play needs. I was particularly impressed by Gabrielle Reidy (who plays the mother) who acted her socks off and sent a harrowing vibe out into the theatre at certain points where I could almost feel her pain as her life is falling apart in front of us. An excellent performance.

I loved the horses, six actors/dancers with a metal horses skeleton head and platform hooves, moving stately around the stage, imitating how horses move. The only thing missing was a nice flowing mane - horses have manes, y'know. It was great watching them move gracefully across the stage, stamp and shake their heads.

It's a wierd play - very powerful but wierd. It's about so many things and (probably) none at the same time. We've alienated ourselves from passion and from feeling anything with our modern lives, consumerism v nature, organised religion v paganism, sexual mores and, quite frankly, a wierdo boy with wierd ideas. It's full of psychobabble but that didn't put me off at all - it drew me further in (which is probably a comment on me!). It shows us the terror in our souls, our unthinking impact on others and the consequences of our actions projected onto others. And none of that.

And it's a play I'd see again. I haven't said *that* recently!