presents

Equus

By Peter Shaffer
Directed by Jeffery Lesniak

Performance Dates: June 2 - 24, 2006
Friday and Saturday at 8:00.
Sunday, June 11 and 18 at 2:00.

The story of the play
One night - and the story has been based by Mr. Shaffer on a flimsily documented but apparantly true incident - a young stable hand attacked six horses in their stable. He systematically put their eyes out. It seems motiveless. He loved horses. He almost worshipped them - yet one night, one by one, in a disgusting, purposeless scene of violence he blinded them. Why? The boy was sick. Of course he was sick, but why?

The disturbed boy is placed in an institution under the care of a psychiatrist. The boy has perpetrated a crime that is not only senseless but also bizarre. The pattern of the crime runs not contrary to nature but contains elements of grotesque fantasy. Why blind horses? A madman might kill them, wound them in some crazed passion, but to carefully if frenziedly blind six horses suggests a certain method in the madness.

The young criminal is obviously alienated. When he first meets the psychiatrist, he refuses to answer any questions - his only response is to gabble-sing advertising jingles with a mocking despair. His mind is closed up by the secret of his tragedy. The psychiatrist decides to unclaim it - to exorcise the ghost.

This is the story of the play. The psychiatrist painfully has to unravel the boy's background. He not only has to win his confidence, but also has to sustain his interest. First what was his family like? What were the events leading up to this obscene violence? Slowly the doctor investigates the facts and the circumstances, and pieces together the anatomy of an outrage. He does not have to judge. He is merely seeking the truth in the hope of freeing the boy from a demon.

(Text taken from the Review of the National Theater Production, 1974, by Clive Barnes)

Cast

John Decker as Martin Dysart
Steve Backus as Alan Strang
Randy Barth or Sandy Irving as Frank Strang
Barbara Ying as Dora Strang
Patti Restivo as Hesther Salomon
Allison Plourde as Jill Mason
David Wisdom as Harry Dalton
Beatriz Mayoral as the nurse
Nigel Parkinson, Jr. as Horseman / Nugget
Melanie Jester and Malca Giblin as horses

"Parental advisory: contains strong language and nudity."