Gielgud TheatreShaftesbury Avenue
West End, London
7:30 - 10:30 PM
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe
Richard Griffiths
Will Kemp
"With one particular horse he embraces..." The once dark stage became dimly lit and six horses (played by men wearing horse masks and hooves made out of metal) slowly emerged from the darkness. A boy named Alan Strang also came out, clad in jeans and shirt, walked to the stage, and carefully placed his arms around a particular horse named Nugget in a passionate embrace. The horse seemed to felt this as it also inclined its head towards the boy in what looked like a momentary sympathy, not an animal's instinct. Martin Dysart, in his account, narrated his undertaking about a troubled 17-year old boy, who's obsession about horses had led him to blind these six horses, a psychiatric journey that would question not only the boy's extremity but the normality of our lives as well.
It was my first time that I saw a real stage play, and I mean REAL play, not all those classroom and school rubbish we had once done. This was London West End and that sums it all. Stage plays could never get better than finding it in other places. Seeing all theatres lining up the streets, billboards lighting up the nightsky and people queuing for tickets, I felt that I had finally experienced the world of theatre and since Equus was my first, I hope to say that it will not be my last.
I saw Equus on a Monday night, scurrying up to the Piccadilly Circus by tube train with Dad only to check this play on a preview night. 'Twas third opening since Friday night. The whole show would be open to the public on the 27th of February, which means the early shows from February 16 would only be available to those who had booked the tickets on an earlier date. It took almost £75 (7,500 Php) per ticket to watch the show on front seats, and luckily we weren't too far from the stage then.So what was the fuss all about then? Why had Equus became the most-talked about, most controversial play this year? All newspapers, magazines and tabloids in London had Equus written all over it. Not only the fact that this was a remake of an iconic 1973 stage play by Peter Schaffer himself but also this was Daniel Radcliffe's first break to perform on stage, his first spread of wings out of the Harry Potter world, out of the walls of innocence in Hogwarts. And yes, he did appear naked on stage for the last 10 minutes of the second act.
Equus (Latin word for "horse") is a story about a boy who was forced to draw an inner world, trying to battle his parents' religious beliefs. Alan Strang (Daniel Radcliffe), his name, works on an electronic store and has a lousy life. His father, Frank Strang, a repressive and persistent Atheist (non-believer of Christ), always pesters his mind that there is no such thing as God, and his mother, Dora Strang, is a religious woman, teaching him all about the Bible stories. When his father discovers that an image of Christ bearing the cross on chains was placed in front of Alan's bed, he became highly strung and insisted to replace another figure, not the Christ in suffering. But Alan found this inspirational and the Christ in chains was a dominant figure in his life. In fact, when his father removed it from his bedroom, he felt devastated for days, only to be reawakened when his father replaced a stunning image of a white horse exactly the same place where the Christ figure was placed before. By this, Alan felt alive again, much more alive and that image of the horse became a focal point to him - it became his new God. All of this was told in flashbacks and re-enactments, carefully trying to flesh out like fleshing onion skin layers, the more you peel, the more you see.
The play was told in a series of narration, mostly told by the child psychologist Martin Dysart (the ever brilliant Richard Griffiths known to Harry Potter nutheads as the raucous and temperamental Uncle Vernon). It uses flashbacks, lighting and sound to create a stirring and chilling atmosphere of untold memories and uncharted illusions. When he was first approached by Hester Saloman, a co-psychiatrist of the hospital, he resisted having the boy's case and considered himself maybe too big for psychology. But it was Alan Strang's case that attracted him because he was not only a boy with psychological issues but also a person who had blinded six horses with a hoof pick. What had led him to do such horrible thing? We asked ourselves. And as the story slowly unfolds, the audience fell all to silent that even a cough was all too loud to hear.As Dysart was trying to get deeper into the mental and emotional mystery of it, and investigating Alan Strang by himself personally. Every time he asks Alan, he never speaks and the first words that came out of Daniel Radcliffe's mouth ever since he came out of the stage was a Milky Bar television jingle. His voice evolved somewhat to being theatrical, although it sometimes croak but due to his constant voice lessons, he did a pretty good job vocally and he could definitely hold a tune. All the rest of the first few scenes were a lot of angry stares from the actor.
Dysart continued to investigate, asking Alan Strang's parents about the boy's behaviour. He discovered that the boy always wakes up from sleep due to nightmares, constantly yelling, screaming and writhing "Eck! Eck!" in the dead of the night. His father also told Dysart he had once heard Alan in his room, chanting something as if he was worshipping. In this key scene, we could see Daniel Radliffe in the centre, kneeling in front the horse's image in his room, pulling out a horse's chinkle chankle and whips himself while chanting in a chilling tone: "Equus! Son of Nequus..." That was one of the most unforgettable scenes in the play, and the way it was performed was disturbing. Way disturbing than what Paul Bettany portrayed as the self-sacrificing Silas in Ron Howard's cinematic version of The Da Vinci Code.
As we then know that Alan was directly attached to the horse in which he considered God, it was also told in a flashback when Alan encountered his first ride in a horse. He was on a beach, building a sand castle, when a "college-looking guy" (played by Will Kemp, a British actor who starred in movies like Van Helsing, Mindhunters and loads of television films and series) mounting a horse came over, inviting him for a ride. That time when Alan mounted onto the horse, he felt his first freedom, away from his parents' clutches for the first time in his life. All his passion, his dreams, his belief came to a single halt in that very moment - letting it all flow through his very being. It became his religion, his own world, his own soul.
Then he met Jill, a girl living near the stables, daughter of the man who owned the horses. He was inrtoduced to the stable and was given a job to clean the place, and take care of the horses. He was being taught how to comb the horses' hair and to carefully groom them. Alan knew more; it was a fulfillment to his wildest dreams. When Alan was left alone, the stage grew suddenly quiet and the horses behaved quiet differently towards Alan. But Alan was fearless and he knew horses more than anybody does. They were his slave-gods. And so was Daniel Radcliffe in this final scene of the first act - he was fearless. In one of the most memorable scenes, he chose a particular horse named Nugget and rode him into the fields during a night. It was very misty, the stage, and all we could see is Dan removing his shirt, his socks and shoes, leaving him a pair of jeans. He mounted the horse and stage slowly rotated, becoming intensely fast, and began to ride the horse faster and faster, while screaming out with in all his lungs as if he was at the height of pleasure: "HA HAAA! HA HAAA! ONE PERSON! ONE PERSON! WE WILL MAKE OURSELVES ONE PERSON!" It was like he was having a climax at the back of the horse but a spiritual one. He spreads his arms in the air as the light on him grew luminously and then the stage went black. The audience broke into a great applause. It was the end of the first act. Compellingly portrayed, this scene.Now, the second act. Back to Dysart, proceeding on his in-depth investigation with Alan. Since the first act was all about religion, the second act delves deeper into the realms of sexuality. It was Alan's father who suggested to inquire about the girl that Alan had been with during that night he commited the crime, and further understand the key of his obsession. Dysart instructs Alan to open and close his eye in tempo with the tapping of his pen, and gave him a pill in which he was coaxed to believe that it was a truth-drug. Alan demonstrates his fury when Dysart compelled to tell him everything about that night, he went with a bang: "TELL ME? TELL ME! TELL ME! TELL ME! FUCK OFF YOU OLD BUGGER!" Oh yes, Daniel Radcliffe dropped F-bombs here and everywhere big time. But Dysart gained his trust and Alan started to tell about the girl he went out with. It was Jill (portrayed by blonde British actress, Joanna Christie). She invited Alan to watch a "silly" film in a local private cinema and was too stunned to find out when his father was there also. It was on the brink of his realisation, even too amazed, that all men with "pricks" watch "silly" films somehow, Radcliffe demonstrates. And on that night, after insisting to his dad to walk Jill home because it was "proper" according to him, and Jill led him to the stables where they share their first kiss.
This is where the most staggering scene, and the most important part of the play, happened. Jill told Alan to relax and to roll in the hay, as they slowly shed their clothes off bit by bit. It was a bit funny to notice the whole audience to just suddenly sat still, eyes watching intently, mind hurtling like leaps. Daniel Radcliffe and Joanna Christie went nude on stage not just to display their whole glory, but to act the most crucial scene of all. Alan then slowly narrates what was happening as Dysart was listening that during their acts, he couldn't kiss her because Alan "could not see her eyes, and when I look at it, it's only his (Equus/horse) eyes that I see..." Shameful of his action, he jumps away from her and then threatens her with a hoof pick if she wouldn't leave. As Jill left hurriedly, ostensibly terrified, he realised that his obsession could no longer be tolerated. The most powerful scene in the play was where Daniel runs around, apparently naked on the stage, in cold wrath, and raw anger, shouting "NO MORE!" He uses the hoof picks and blinds each single horse and the stage rumbles with anxiety, the lights went ballistic and the sounds were so overpowering everyone was so still. It was a great emotional outburst not only for the character Alan Strang but also to Dan himself. That scene, although Dan was running around the stage nude, everybody forgets that he has no clothes on because his acting became his clothes, and way he effuses sheer energy, it was relentless, blinding the horses one by one. Dysart came to his defenses and protected Alan with a red cloth, saying "it's all over... You're not going to have nightmares anymore..."
The play ended with Dysart talking to the audience, telling us that he lied to Alan and that he couldn't probably fix his own illness. His parents commanded him to make Alan a normal boy, but he threw a big question to them: "What is normal?" Apparently, Dysart learned so much from his treatment sessions with Alan. When he asks Alan about certain things, he throws the questions back to Dysart for example when Dysart asks him, "Do you dream, Alan?", and Alan retorts back with, "Tell me, do you?" Such wit and sharp tongue eventually turns Alan into a great tantamount to Dysart's mental capability. Dysart discovered that if he takes that illness from Alan, that abnormality from him, then he's taking his soul, the person that's within him. He also learned that nobody is indeed normal, even his life is lousy, even his career is lousy. How do we define normality then?Seeing it all physically and personally, I could say Equus is one of the most important plays to grace the stage. Although I haven't seen so many stage plays, and that Equus is in fact my first stage play viewing, it is a very powerful play that has a huge impact to the society nowadays and for years to come. Since it was made back in 1973 by the brilliant playwright Peter Schaffer (who gained his knighthood in this recent year), it was as important as it is now, mostly to parents and the teenagers.
The performances itself was worth the ticket. It was a massive decision for Daniel Radcliffe to leap out of the wizard cloak and to portray a character that is mentally and emotionally troubled as Alan Strang. Before, when we have seen this boy playing the world's most favourite wizard, people admitted that he was somehow lacking in the acting department. But now, he took this opportunity to prove himself that he's not Harry Potter and he's certainly indeed an actor. It takes awesome courage to tackle this character, and he was just brave enough to drop his clothes off like a drop of a hat. Like real actors, in the likes of Gary Oldman, who also appeared naked on stage, inspired Dan to give it a go and prove himself as a "serious" actor in a "serious" play. He's not the bespectacled boy with a wand and a broom prancing around with Wingardim Leviosa's anymore; if one actor wants to prove himself/herself his/her acting chops, the West End is the best way to do it, and Dan had made a career choice. Certainly, he had grown now, and if you want to see the play just because he's taking his clothes off (just like any other silly girls giggling around as soon as his pants are down), then you don't know what you are in for. People had raised their brows as soon as everyone knows that Dan would be appearing nude on stage, therefore ruining his innocent image as the boy wizard. But I think Equus isn't about appearing nude, it's an emotional nudity that Equus is supposed to portray and having Daniel Radcliffe doing that crucial scene with his clothes on would be completely rubbish, as what Daniel Radcliffe himself explains in interviews. Equus is a very, very physically and emotionally draining play, and knowing that it would run for the next 4 months, one could say what gravitas Dan has to have to cope up with every demand of the job. He had played Alan Strang to perfection, and he portrayed it with anger, pain, wit, sarcasm, humour with emotional complexity. Seeing Daniel Radcliffe is personal, acting on stage, and I mean, raw acting - no visual effects, no cuts, no rewinds - I say it's much better to see him really act than to see him in the cinema screens. And boy, he can really act. So much for setbacks, he had proven himself here, that's no doubt. This is so far his best performance up to date as an actor, his most artistic portrayal and his most convincing portrait of a character yet. I'm sure that he would be one day become one of the best British actors, and make Harry Potter more watchable in the upcoming Order of the Phoenix, as Harry turns into more nasty, much darker and full of wrath. Expect more great things from this young man because something indeed more wicked this way comes in his career as an actor.
Richard Griffiths was also a superior actor in this play. It's no wonder why this man has a monolithic talent equal to his monolithic body. He was stupendous as Martin Dysart, and he played it with sympathy, humour and sharp intelligence. It was just brilliant how he showed the three-dimensional feel of his character, a psychiatrist who's meant to treat children's mentality but couldn't treat his own. Most of the play's humour came from him, and the audience just laugh with him with all heart. Too bad little children were oriented to Griffiths as only that loathing bastard Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films. He's supposed to be more than just a nasty size, when he acts, everyone falls trembling to their knees.There's also Will Kemp, who played the young horseman and the horse Nugget. Although he played the horse Nugget mostly, he uses his body movements as a way of talking to Alan Strang and the effect, a two-way communication between the boy and the horse. I was also quiet amazed when there was a Filipino stage actor who was a part of the play. His name was Joel Corpuz, who studied Dance back in the Philippines, and pursued his career in the West End. Just smashing how a Filipino came to be a part of this breathtaking production.
We came out of the theather after what I call a great evening. Equus, I foresee, would be ultimately successful and as what I gathered, it has already amassed £1 million (100 million pesos) on it's first 3 nights of running. Even inside the theater, people were muttering, "Brace yourselves, this is history in the making." Anyway, I am just glad that I have seen Daniel Radcliffe turn into a great actor and surely, nobody wants to trample him now. This is my first time also that I saw an international celebrity, and he's indeed a celebrity and an actor, big time. Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton - watch out soon (laughs).
I think shallow people wouldn't "get" the whole idea of Equus. It is a play that would compel people to think, and from this compulsion, we are led to analyse why had Alan Strang had done such crime, why had he been obsessed with horses, why can't he be cured. As what Dysart tells that Alan has a behaviour that would go to "the point of extremity", Equus is a play that is in the point of extremity. It is intelligent, courageous and brave enough to tell parents in front of their faces that what they tell to their children, those things and acts will affect when they grow up. And it is also clever enough to put Alan Strang in a position in which every single teenager in the world could relate to him because he's battling religious faith, hormones and sexuality. It's not supposed to be a question why had he been obsessed to horses and why did he consider horses as his "Gods" and worships them with all his body, mind and soul. He's just like any teenager who has other Gods as well, just as horses which are gods to Alan, just as films to a film buff, just as video games to a video junkie, just as books to a bookworm, just as a Barbie doll to a little girl, just as clothes to fashion maniac, just as a skaterboard to a skater - I mean we're all obsessed about something. It's also a great soming-of-age story. And how to treat this all? Equus forces us to think. Do we really think we are normal? How do we define normal then in this context.
Equus has all the answers. It may be a very complex stage play, and sometimes difficult to understand - but since when did our lives became not complex? I hope you see what I mean, otherwise all this fuss would be utterly nonsense.
Rating: A+
