Equus

Written By Peter Shaffer
Directed By J.J. Marrs

February 18-March 13, 2010
Thursday-Saturday Nights at 8pm

Performed at 5th Avenue Antiques

Dr. Martin Dysart, a psychiatrist, is confronted with Alan Strang, a boy who has blinded six horses in a violent fit of passion. Alan’s passion is as foreign to Dysart as the act itself. To the boy’s parents, it is a hideous mystery; Alan has always adored horses. To Dysart, it is a psychological puzzle that leads both doctor and patient to a complex and disturbingly dramatic confrontation.

Featuring: Brad Riegel, Tim Childers, Ginny S. Loggins, Mel Christian, David Phipps, Christina Guthrie, Ron Dauphinee, Penny Thomas, Jonathan Hinnen, Cody Royce Moore, Christoph Hooks, Michael Walters, and Stephen Wade

AL.COM REVIEW
“Riegel and Childers are more than up to the task, and this production is a winner because of that.”
— Alec Harvey

Peter Shaffer (1926-2016), was a British playwright of considerable range who moved easily from farce to the portrayal of human anguish. Educated at St. Paul’s and Trinity College, Cambridge, Shaffer first worked for a music publisher and then as a book reviewer. His first play, Five-Finger Exercise (1960), is a tautly constructed domestic drama that almost overnight established his reputation as a playwright. It was followed by The Private Ear, The Public Eye (both 1962), and The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), a portrayal of the conflict between the Spanish and the Inca – “hope and hopelessness, faithlessness and faith.” In 1965 Shaffer’s adroit farce Black Comedy was first performed. Equus (1973; filmed 1977), dealing with a mentally disturbed stableboy’s obsession with horses, and Amadeus (1979; filmed 1984), about the rivalry between Mozart and his fellow composer Antonio Salieri, were successes with both critics and the public. Later plays include the biblical epic Yonadab (1985), Lettice and Lovage (1987) and The Gift of the Gorgon (1992). Shaffer was knighted in 2001 and sadly passed away in 2016.