Starring Harry Potter (actor Daniel Radcliffe) and featuring horses, Equus seems like every nine year old girl's dream Broadway production!
Ah, unfortunate irony. The story is equal parts disturbing and inspiring. It's primal. And terrifying in that way that horror fascinates us. Not at all fodder for young people.
Richard Griffiths plays Martin Dysart, the juvenile psychiatrist working with troubled 17-year old Alan Strang (played by Radcliffe). Strang has been sent to the reform ward of the local mental hospital (instead of jail) by a caring magistrate. His crime is hauntingly gruesome and utterly troubling: He blinds six horses in a fierce act of cruel violence. Dysart calms the boy and the play is basically a reenactment of all the memories and actions that led to the violence. Griffiths' doctor is so insightful that he helps us see that given the circumstances, the violent conclusion is not only comprehensible, but actually caused by a passion for life that few us ever experience.
As he "cures" Strang, he regrets the loss of this passion. It's an incredibly disturbing and sad play on many levels - the horror of the violence, the compassion we feel for the troubled boy, the admiration we have for his passion and the sadness we have at the stifling of that passion. Of course it must be stifled. Otherwise, Strand can not function in society. Of course, cruelty of this measure is not acceptable for any reason. But the play teaches us that passion out of control is just as sad and unspeakable as the acts we perform from a life of no passion at all.
This is Radcliffe's first Broadway and nearly first stage performance and I thought he did a fine job. Much of the character is extremes, which are easier to play. But Radcliffe also does well with a series of scenes were he is both acting his own memories and narrating them to the doctor. So Radcliffe has to move in and out of the action as player and observer, and he does so seamlessly. The role is pretty physical and includes a long scene performed nude - an aspect that would be rather intense and unnerving for your stage debut, I should think.
All the interviews that I've seen indicate that Radcliffe chose this play in part because Griffiths agreed to also do it and they have a very strong onstage connection that must extend to real life. It's a great first play for Radcliffe also because it is so challenging and revealing - if you are going to shake off the cloak of Harry Potter, you best do it with a very strong and different role.
I definitely recommend Equus - it's not cheery, but it's really really well done.
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