Animal magic | 25 July 2019

Equus is a psychological thriller from 1973 which opens with a revolting discovery. An unbalanced stable-lad, Alan, spends his evenings taking the horses out for an illicit gallop. Meanwhile, he’s busy seducing a hot young cowgirl at the farm but his awakening sexuality confuses him. The girl’s erotic nature brings out his closeted gay side and he tries to purge his homosexuality by stabbing six stallions in the eyes. A mopy shrink (Zubin Varla) takes on Alan’s case but finds himself investigating his own troubled psyche instead. Some of the details in Peter Shaffer’s play have dated badly. Alan’s parents are caricatures of nauseating suburban inanity. The mum is a simpering Bible-hugging Christian while the father is a shouty disciplinarian who denies the existence of God. This pairing looks like a butter-fingered attempt to suggest ‘a house divided against itself’.

In the early 1970s, gay love was still a sufficiently tricky topic to need encryption, and the play approaches it sideways on, with hints and clues. But Ned Bennett’s updated version tosses the code-book away and comes waltzing out of the closet. It’s full-on Pride out there. At press night there was an audible flutter of anticipation as Alan (Ethan Kai) shed his robe and started capering around with his togs off, stabbing nags. The visuals and the sound effects are terrific. The horrible acts of violence at the play’s climax are done simply and artfully but without any kitsch or ketchup. Not even a child would find this eye-gouging scary.

The horse itself, embodied by the amazing Ira Mandela Siobhan, is the show’s outstanding feature. He trots on stage and lowers himself into a half-stoop, legs astride, straight arms pointed downwards, his fists bunched, his neck veins bulging, his nostrils flaring.