another day, another horse-related post. Tonight I went to a performance of West-End sensation Equus, my first time at a play since moving to London. First of all, yes, it is the one where Harry Potter gets naked (I'll be honest, we definitely talked about it-a lot with the friend I went with on our way to the theatre. Like, 'if the play sucks, at least we'll have seen Harry Potter naked and we can tell others about it' or 'that play was great, and hey, we saw Wizard boy get nude and get to tell people about it'. Shallow, but these are the things you talk about at the end of a long workday and three days of rain). Also I was mistakenly under the impression that a real live horse was to appear during the performance, and was pretty excited, definitely more than by Daniel Radcliffe's (that's Harry Potter) impending nakedness. Unfortunately that never occured, but there were 6 fake-horses, so that's gotta count for something. Plus the actress who plays DR's girlfriend gets naked too, so that's one for the plus column as well. But enough with the base comments, let's talk about aaaaarrrt. I'm not a huge specialist of the stageplay world; indeed having seen 2 is a performance that puts me perilously close to my all-time record of 3, reached back when I saw them during school field trips, aka would go to even when I didn't want to just to hang out with friends. But I always enjoy attending one because it takes me out of my artistic comfort zones which are music and film, and generally leads me to rewarding intellectual stimulation. What, you thought I went to oggle boobs and wait for a live animal to appear?
Written by Peter Schaffer, Equus tells the story of a psychiatrist who is presented with the odd case of a youngster whose fascination with the equine race has led him to a terrible crime against them. The shrink was played with tremendous ease by Richard Griffiths, which presented a more than compelling partner to Alan Strang, the character of the teenager played by Mr Radcliffe. The story touches on many themes often found in psychanalysis, like religion, family or sex, but is open-ended enough for everyone to reach their own conclusion. While I wasn't totally convinced by logic behind the story (especially when related to Alan's childhood and his initial fascination for horses), I thought it progressed coherently, and was aided by mostly strong acting. The directing and lighting was simple and efficient, never getting in the way of the story while still presenting the audience with some nonlinearity.
We only decided to go see the play during lunchbreak, when we went to the Leicester Square tkts booth (which I highly recommend) and saw the list of shows on offer, but overall I enjoyed seeing it. And yes, I did see Harry Potter nekked, but the play and the overall artistic choices are interesting enough for it not to feel like a gimmick. Still I sure would've loved to see an actual horse on that stage.
Written by Peter Schaffer, Equus tells the story of a psychiatrist who is presented with the odd case of a youngster whose fascination with the equine race has led him to a terrible crime against them. The shrink was played with tremendous ease by Richard Griffiths, which presented a more than compelling partner to Alan Strang, the character of the teenager played by Mr Radcliffe. The story touches on many themes often found in psychanalysis, like religion, family or sex, but is open-ended enough for everyone to reach their own conclusion. While I wasn't totally convinced by logic behind the story (especially when related to Alan's childhood and his initial fascination for horses), I thought it progressed coherently, and was aided by mostly strong acting. The directing and lighting was simple and efficient, never getting in the way of the story while still presenting the audience with some nonlinearity.
We only decided to go see the play during lunchbreak, when we went to the Leicester Square tkts booth (which I highly recommend) and saw the list of shows on offer, but overall I enjoyed seeing it. And yes, I did see Harry Potter nekked, but the play and the overall artistic choices are interesting enough for it not to feel like a gimmick. Still I sure would've loved to see an actual horse on that stage.
No comments:
Post a Comment