Written by
Peter Shaffer
Directed by barb barnett
Canberra Rep at Theatre 3
26
September to 11 October, 2014
Review by Len Power
Peter
Shaffer’s ‘Equus’ was one of the most memorable and popular plays of the 1970s. It details a harrowing investigation of a
horrendous crime by a psychiatrist with serious self-doubts of his own.
This
production by barb barnett lacked pace and energy on opening night. Performances were uneven, in several cases
lacking depth and needing more vocal projection. Only at the end, in the long psychiatric
re-enactment of the crime, did the production display the level of intensity
required to draw audiences in, mainly due to the performances of Jerry Hearn as
the psychiatrist and Benjamin Hardy as the youth.
An
important element of a production of ‘Equus’ is the way the horses are
depicted. The masks designed by S.E. O’Brien were excellent but the device lost
a lot of its power with the actors often just holding the horse heads rather
than wearing them. There was no sense of
the youth’s perception of the horses as awesome God-like creatures. A key scene set on a beach where the youth
first encounters a horse was awkwardly staged.
Although
set in the present, the play is showing its age, especially in the scene set in
a cinema showing a Danish soft core movie.
The relationship of the parents and the troubled youth seem more 1970s
than today as well.
Nevertheless,
‘Equus’ is still a play with a lot of power to intrigue and disturb audiences.
Originally published
in Canberra City News digital edition 27 September 2014