![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I saw Equus on Friday, courtesy of Michael.
WOW. It is truly an incredible show. It took me awhile to realize just how good it was--when we left I was thinking "very well done and Daniel Radcliffe should be proud of his debut." But I couldn't stop thinking about it. Saturday I looked up clips on YouTube--I wanted to see how other productions had been staged, and how the movie looked and felt. I found out that the original production had been staged more realistically (whatever that means, since it was also in the round and the horses were also played by humans). This revival, however, is very abstract and expressionistic. The first moment of the show, the stage is bathed in dark blue light and there's a humming, keening sound. Alan Strang is in the middle of the stage as the dancers who play the horses step out of their "stalls" and don their oversized wire horse heads. The genius of this staging is that it takes you there with an immediacy that's impossible to describe--you are THERE, you "get" the boy's madness, you feel what he feels, you imagine what was going through him in the barn that night, almost like an electrical current or voices. It's absolutely brilliant direction--I'm so proud it was a female director.
The performances are generally quite strong. Daniel Radcliffe, of course, is brilliant--I can't believe he's virtually never been on stage before! His performance is just terrific--he is always in the moment, he's immersed in this character. The girl who plays Jill is pretty good too--that's not an easy role by any means, she has to try to establish a connection with a character who's incapable of it, a difficult thing to do without sacrificing your credibility. I might've directed her differently though, tried to find a little more humor in the role, a few more levels. Griffiths, who plays the psychologist, is good--I'm not sure I agree with his take on the character (I might've liked a little more theatricality--he definitely chose to underplay it) but I do think it works. I have to say though, I was most impressed by the dancers who play the horses--they are all mesmerizing. They've clearly worked hard on their roles--they really do suggest these enormous beasts who fascinate the boy, while wearing nothing more than wire horse heads and wire "hoof" platforms. I especially liked the lead horse in his scene as the Young Horseman. He was so believable as he "reined in" the horse he was riding--you could see him trying to control this massive animal. Wonderful work. (The one false note was when Alan was "riding" one of the horses and he starts to canter--a canter is a specific rhythm, a triplet--not a two-step like a trot. If he's cantering or galloping, the actor has to change the gait.)
The play is very intense during the reenactment though--I started crying and had to look away as he was blinding the horses. I couldn't take it. Animal cruelty of any kind of very, very upsetting.
I was intrigued by how similar the play Agnes of God is to Equus. Both start with the statement of a terrible, inexplicable crime committed by a young person, and the psychologist who analyzes the perpetrator addresses the audience directly at length, and also ends up questioning their own value system. The climax of both plays is the reenactment of the crime.
I would really like to see this again.
WOW. It is truly an incredible show. It took me awhile to realize just how good it was--when we left I was thinking "very well done and Daniel Radcliffe should be proud of his debut." But I couldn't stop thinking about it. Saturday I looked up clips on YouTube--I wanted to see how other productions had been staged, and how the movie looked and felt. I found out that the original production had been staged more realistically (whatever that means, since it was also in the round and the horses were also played by humans). This revival, however, is very abstract and expressionistic. The first moment of the show, the stage is bathed in dark blue light and there's a humming, keening sound. Alan Strang is in the middle of the stage as the dancers who play the horses step out of their "stalls" and don their oversized wire horse heads. The genius of this staging is that it takes you there with an immediacy that's impossible to describe--you are THERE, you "get" the boy's madness, you feel what he feels, you imagine what was going through him in the barn that night, almost like an electrical current or voices. It's absolutely brilliant direction--I'm so proud it was a female director.
The performances are generally quite strong. Daniel Radcliffe, of course, is brilliant--I can't believe he's virtually never been on stage before! His performance is just terrific--he is always in the moment, he's immersed in this character. The girl who plays Jill is pretty good too--that's not an easy role by any means, she has to try to establish a connection with a character who's incapable of it, a difficult thing to do without sacrificing your credibility. I might've directed her differently though, tried to find a little more humor in the role, a few more levels. Griffiths, who plays the psychologist, is good--I'm not sure I agree with his take on the character (I might've liked a little more theatricality--he definitely chose to underplay it) but I do think it works. I have to say though, I was most impressed by the dancers who play the horses--they are all mesmerizing. They've clearly worked hard on their roles--they really do suggest these enormous beasts who fascinate the boy, while wearing nothing more than wire horse heads and wire "hoof" platforms. I especially liked the lead horse in his scene as the Young Horseman. He was so believable as he "reined in" the horse he was riding--you could see him trying to control this massive animal. Wonderful work. (The one false note was when Alan was "riding" one of the horses and he starts to canter--a canter is a specific rhythm, a triplet--not a two-step like a trot. If he's cantering or galloping, the actor has to change the gait.)
The play is very intense during the reenactment though--I started crying and had to look away as he was blinding the horses. I couldn't take it. Animal cruelty of any kind of very, very upsetting.
I was intrigued by how similar the play Agnes of God is to Equus. Both start with the statement of a terrible, inexplicable crime committed by a young person, and the psychologist who analyzes the perpetrator addresses the audience directly at length, and also ends up questioning their own value system. The climax of both plays is the reenactment of the crime.
I would really like to see this again.
