Play an exploration of boy’s animal instincts

The blinding of a horse in Peter Shaffer’s psychodrama Equus still horrifies 40 years after its premiere, says Colette Sheridan

LONDON Classic Theatre’s production of the stirring psychodrama, Equus, by Peter Shaffer, runs at Cork’s Everyman Palace Theatre from February 8-18. Since its first production, at the National Theatre in London in 1973, Shaffer’s tale of equine worship, myth and sexuality, has been produced worldwide. The Harry Potter, star Daniel Radcliffe, received a ‘best actor’ award for his portrayal of the troubled Alan Strang in a Broadway production in 2009. In 1977, the play was filmed starring Richard Burton.

In writing Equus, Shaffer was inspired by a news story of a British youth who blinded horses in a stable. Shaffer’s goal was “to create a mental world in which the deed could be made comprehensible.”