EQUUS Play Review

A. Khan	Host-A-Performance \| Schedule

Writer : Peter Shaffer Direction : Daniel Dsouza Cast : Eamonn Ennis, Reshma Varghese, Daniel D'Souza, Nakul Jayadevan and Rebecca Spurgeon

EQUUS Review

If you're the kind of person who wants to spend two hours laughing at predictable jokes in comfortable plots, you might want to give EQUUS a miss...entirely. For the rest of you, who enjoy psychological drama, thought provoking themes and a mystery that goes beyond the whodunit Hollywood format, Jester's production of Peter Shaffer's masterpiece and acclaimed play will blow you away.

The play, written in 1973, has its origins in the true story of a young man arrested for blinding horses. Why? Who knows? But if you're up for some serious psychological interplay of circumstances and behaviour, the imagined events in the play are like a Freudian sonnet to a lover of Psychology.

The play is told from Dr. Martin Dysart's (Eamonn Ennis) perspective. A psychiatrist battling his own "professional menopause" becomes involved with young Alan Strang's (Daniel D'Souza) religious and sexual obsession with horses. While everyone from the magistrate, Hester Soloman (Reshma Varghese) to his parents, Frank and Dora Strang (Nakul Jayadevan and Rebecca Spurgeon) want the 17-year-old "cured", Dysart makes some good arguments for not wishing to "rob him of his ability to worship".

The play doesn't explore any tame concepts of love or coming of age. It has adult language, themes and some seriously disturbing homoerotic undercurrents, not to mention two very graphic orgiastic scenes. But inspite of its jaw dropping nature, there isn't a single moment where you feel like the cast has overplayed it. The supporting cast however lacks the concentration for a play like this and at times even fails to punch out dialogues to the desired effect. But it still does a reasonably good job of supporting D' Souza and Ennis, who play their parts excellently.

You'll never guess that this is the team's first professional production for a college festival before being picked up by Thespo for its regular performances at Prithvi Theatre. Ennis, especially, was on stage from start to end, and has the sort of presence and professionalism that keeps you hooked.

One can imagine how tough it might have been to work with a play that has made waves at the West End and on Broadway. But Daniel D'Souza has set a new standard for Indian theatre in English. If this picks up, nudity might be as commonplace in theatre as kissing and homosexuality. The young director is indeed professional. We'd like to wait until his next production though before we label him as the next best thing in Theatre in Mumbai.

*A. Khan is a Mumbai based writer and blogger.

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