West Hartford Playhouse offers accomplished look at "Equus"

The feisty new to the theatrical scene Playhouse on Park in West Hartford has taken on a complex challenge in its efforts to provide a fulfilling alternative to other professional theaters in the area by coproducing with the Hartt School at the University of Hartford a new production of Peter Schaffer's 1974 play, Equus, which runs through October 17.

At its premiere over 35 years ago, the play was considered quite innovative and radical, thanks to the playwright's willingness to delve deeply into the burgeoning eroticism of its 17-year old protagonist's mind and for director John Dexter's unusual and compelling staging which kept the cast on stage throughout the performance and placed a small number of audience members in a semi-circle at the back of the stage.  It reminded one of a stadium or arena, a fitting metaphor for the battle on stage between the young man. Alan Strang, and the veteran psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, assigned to find out what caused the teenager to blind six horses in a riding stable just outside of London.

The psychological components were, and remain, especially fascinating, since Shaffer was inspired to write the play after coming upon an actual account of such an incident in the local papers.  He decided to try to craft a work that would realistically explain how a young person could commit such a frightening act, which fed off of the latest research in psycho-sexual relations and adolescent development that were being reported on at the time.  While these explanations seem more ingrained into our culture than they did 25 years ago, the play itself still packs punch as a psychological detective story and, as envisioned by Shaffer and his original director, one darn good theatrical event.  Few plays since then have made such exhilarating use of theater, in terms of concept, design and intensity.

While the Playhouse on Park/Hartt School does not place audience members on stage, the cast remains seated there throughout (except for an occasional off-stage costume change) when not involved in the action, observing intensely the other scenes.  Shaffer has also required that the six horses be played by actors in black garb wearing the semblance of horses' heads constructed out of wire and walking on wire hooves attached to their shoes.  The actors in this production, while not having the time to incorporate all the subtleties of equine movement, do nonetheless effectively simulate the sudden head turns and the back-scratching of their hooves, as coached by movement consultant JP Qualters, while wearing costume designer Sonya Roberts' impressive masks, which add height and dignity to their movements.

One of the chief advantages of this collaboration between educational institution and professional playhouse is the opportunity for Hartt students to work alongside Actors' Equity members in a professional environment not usually afforded in a strictly student-oriented setting.  The part of Martin Dysart is Ian Holm,  Anthony Perkins, Richard Burton and, last year in the Broadway revival, Richard Griffiths.  Alan Rust, the Director of the Theatre Division at Hartt and Artistic Director of the Monomoy Theater on Cape Cod for 31 years, is impressive in the part, capturing both the man's command of his psychiatric abilities and insights and simultaneously his deeply ingrained doubts about the choices he has made that caused him to live at a certain remove from the risks and exhilaration of life.  His is a believable and splendid performance, overcoming much of the "declaiming" that Shaffer includes in his script, which of course made it so right at home for a generation of British actors.

Any production of Equus cannot succeed without an effective actor as Alan Strang, a complex part that requires swift yet honest turns from over-confidence to fear, from anger to naivete, from stubborness to awe, especially as the young man grows extremely attached to the horses and their unifying spirit which he names "Equus," who can be as cruel, kind and judgmental any god.  Mark Ford, a junior at Hartt, comes across at times as a bit too mature and knowledgeable for the role, where a little more tentativeness might have suited the situation better.  His anger is quite palpable, especially at the beginning, and I found him giving in to Dysart's requests just a little too easily.  Ford makes his connection to the horses quite believable and conveys the abject joy he feels as they allow him to experience a type of freedom that has been denied his entire life.  He is also quite touching in those scenes when he allows his vulnerabilities to show, particularly after stubbornly denying any such feelings or a willingness to cooperate.

Terry Layman and Denise Walker are fine and frightening as Alan's parents, whose one-two combo of inarticulateness and demanding religiosity respectively have helped to set up the internal contradictions that are fighting for the young man's sanity, Nora Chester is convincing as the magistrate who's convinced that Dysart has the skills and insight to break through to the young man.   Sasha Pasternak, another Hartt student, plays Jill Mason, a fellow worker with Alan at the stable, whose attempted gentle seduction of the young man sets in motion the horrific events with the hoof pick that serves as the climax of the play.

Robert H. Davis, a Professor of Acting and Voice and Speech at Hartt, who apparently previously directed a well-received student production of Equus several years ago, has revisited the play with a confidence that maintains s steady momentum throughout the evening and obtains the believable performances from his cast that makes the experience feel so genuine.  He has clearly worked closely with his cast, especially Ford and Pasternak, who demonstrate comfort and security throughout their nude scene that carry a great deal of the second act.  Davis also stages the horse blinding scene simply and sufficiently abstractly without going over the top, not dwelling on certain Grand Guignol components that have indeed been utilized in some other productions.

As for the horses themselves, they are all played by Hartt students, a few of whom double in several other small parts. Charles South as Nugget, the horse to whom Alan feels particularly close, has the added challenge of hoisting Ford on his shoulders several times, as well as playing a snobbish horseman who may have inadvertantly been responsible for stimulating Alan's forbidden worship of all things equine.  As fellow actors Alex Levin, Adam Sarett, Nick Giuliani, David Raposo and Scott Caron wear their horse masks throughout the evening, one is also struck by the resemblance to crowns of thorns, another image incorporated into the feverish mind of the tormented Alan Strang.

The ultimate of question of Equus is who is truly experiencing life, Alan who has learned to gallop or the psychiatrist who has lived a life of responsible probity?  While justice and society demand that Alan be cured in order to avoid further punishment, what happens to those who have become aware of the bit between their teeth that restrains them from ever getting a chance to experience life on a different level?  While this admittedly reeks of 70's psycho-babble, Equus, thanks to the ingenuity of its creators and the willingness of Davis and his Hartt/Playhouse on Park collaborators to embrace their vision, still plays like a dazzling evening of theater.

Equus plays at the Playhouse on Park through Saturday, October 17.  For tickets, please contact the Box Office at www.PlayhouseOnPark.org or call 860.523.5900.