Equus (Penguin Plays) by Peter Shaffer Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.49 You Save: $4.51 (41%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Equus (Penguin Plays)
Book Review: EQUUS - A PASSION!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
'Equus' has been with me since I first saw the National Theatre production of it on the stage of the Old Vic in London, England, in 1975(?). I had gone alone and at the end of the performance walked down the road exhausted, uplifted, deeply moved, and saying audibly, but to myself, 'One day I have to be in that play.' I was hooked. I bought a copy and read it time and time again. I saw it several more times in London and then in the provinces. A total of 14 performances in all - to date!! In 1979, the year it was released to the amateur world, the group I worked with did it and I achieved my ambition, to play Alan Strang. To actually perform the play, to get inside and struggle with the challenges that Schaffer sets was a tremendous experience. Schaffer has given us a beautifully crafted play. Its strength, for me, is not just in the writing or in the plot but in his ability to use strong theatrical devices, like ritual and conflict, to such great effect. I hope in the next year, 1999, it will be possible to direct the play for the amateur group I now belong to, as 20 years down the line, I feel its time to revisit it and bring it to a new audience. This is a play about PASSION.Book Review: Equus is a play that everyone should read and take to heart.
Summary: 5 Stars
I've just finished reading this version of Equus for the third time now, and I never get tired of it. I've also just finished a 23 page paper on Peter Shaffer for my play analysis class, and I have to tell you, Equus is a drama that I thouroughly enjoy. It's probably my favorite play because it deals with not only the subject of the human need for worship, but Equus is also about a search for faith, for Dysart and Alan. It deals with the concepts of religion as well; and being a Christian, I could apply my own teachings to the text. The basic synopsis is an adolescent boy named Alan Strang has committed a horrible crime of blinding six horses in a stable in southern England. After being taking to the local magistrates, he's dubbed as mentally ill (which he is), and is taken to Dr. Martin Dysart, a well-known and respected psychiatrist for evaluation. What unfolds from there, is such an engrossing story into Alan's primal mind and as to why he did this act, you won't believe. Equus speaks to everyone. The conflict for Dysart, who is "utterly worshipless" vs. Alan Strang who activlely and genuinely worships his god Equus is this: I can cure Alan of his illness and make him "Normal"; but how can I do it without stripping him of his genuine worship, which is the core of his life? The story will touch you and make you think, fundamentally. If you've never seen the show, find it somewhere near you and go see it; it's meant to be seen. I had the luxury of seeing it performed at the famously known Stratford Theatre Festival last year in Canada, and it blew me away. The play is quite simply, amazing.Book Review: Equus or my journey to Cavalry...
Summary: 5 Stars
Ostensibly the story of a doctor-patient relationship, Equus is just as limited by the therapist's suite as is Casablanca limited by the walls of Rick's Cafe. The genuis of Shaffer is that he manages to create characters so indelible and unforgettable that they leap out of the read page just as much or more as they do out of the performed page. Put another way, even without Burton in the cinema or Hopkins on Broadway, his Dr. Dysart connects with you. You can easily find yourself joining Dysart as he commences his therapy with Alan Strang. The who, what, when and where are quickly covered as we and Dysart learn that Strang's "presenting problem" is the fact he's just blinded six horses. The why consumes the virtual remainder of the play as we join Dysart in peeling down the oniony layers of Strang's psychosis. Ever the honest observer, Dysart readily admits the plain simple fact of human observational error. His problem -- our problem -- is that our ability to interact and help others is inherently limited by our own myopia. We can only see what we can only see. Fortunately, Dysart understands the problematic nature of probing someone else's consciousness. How can we eliminate the bad without taking some of the good with it? What was it Strang thought he saw in the horses? What was it he was afraid they would see of him?
The answers to those questions are really best left to read or see a performance of this play. As Dysart might himself wryly observe: We all ultimately take our own trip to Cavalry.
For the here and the now, however, it bears noting that this play is one of the single greatest repositorities of quotable, rememberable lines in the English language.
And so: "What way is this? What dark is this? I cannot call it ordained of God. I cannot pay it so much homage. But there is chain in my mouth and it never comes out."
So, don't stop with Shaffer's Amadeus, read or see this one too.
Book Review: Excellent, not surprisingly.
Summary: 4 Stars
Peter Shaffer, Equus (Penguin Drama, 1973)
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Equus was contrasting the play itself to the blurb on the back, which talked about the play's theme being how convenience and falling away from religion led to the decline of modern civilization. Interesting because, read a different way, Equus has as one of its subtexts a rather blistering attack on religion. Something to mull over.
But the important bit is, how's the work itself? The simple answer: it's Peter Shaffer. That should be all you need to know. (For those unaware, Shaffer was also responsible for Amadeus, the play turned into the equally wonderful 1984 Best Picture Oscar winner, and the equally wonderful Five-Finger Discount, the film version of which is unfortunately impossible to find in America.) When you read Shaffer, you are going to find unforgettable characters in intriguing situations, and that's exactly what you get here. The protagonist, Dysart, is a therapist at a mental hospital. His newest charge, sixteen-year-old Alan Strang, has been sent to the institution after blinding six horses at the stable where he'd worked. Dysart's job is, of course, to find out what was going through Strang's mind as he did it. Getting to the answer requires talking to most of those surrounding the boy's life, piecing together what caused Strang's mind to snap (and how long he's been insane), and finally, figuring out the boy's worldview.
It's gripping stuff. About the only thing that can be said against the play (and this is really a niggle, at best) is that some of the minor characters, who by rights should have been major characters, are two-dimensional and could have used a bit of fleshing out. That said, however, Equus is a fantastic piece of work, and well deserves its lofty reputation. ****
Book Review: Extra-Ordinary
Summary: 4 Stars
Peter Shaffers' Equus is an amazing tale of 17 year old boy who is torn between two total extremes, his father who is an Atheist and his mother who beleives in Christianity 100%. I can't begin to explain how absolutly disturbing this play.
If you liked "The Pillowman" you'll love Peter Shaffers' Equus.