Equus

This is an extraordinary read for lovers of words everywhere. Equus is a story about passion, albeit misplaced but none-the-less, passion. As the young protagonist opens up for his psychiatrist, the tales of mystery, love and coming of age all unfold before your eyes. It is a fantastic play and wonderful in print. Read it at least once!

I was told to read this book by a friend. He wouldn't tell me too much about it, wanting me to form my own opinion on it. Well I read it quickly in one setting and actually enjoyed it. It was odd but interesting at the same time. It is unlike any other play I've ever read. It made me wonder what poeple really think about the jobs they do everyday. If you want a quick read that'll make you think, I suggest this play.

This amazing play weaves an incredibly in-depth psyhchological mystery from a very minimalist set. The characters seem to jump from the book directly to your imagination. It's a great story that's hard to put down.

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.

This is one of the most dense, hard-hitting, catharsis-inducing, adjective-provoking works of modern theater and a keynote in contemporary literature. From the pen that scribbled the likes of Amadeus, Shaffer confronts such topics as teen sexuality, childhood imprinting and its effects upon later life, the sociology of religion, and other complex ideas in an interesting, visually stunning work. A great work from a great writer. I place this alongside other 20-th century theatrical masterpieces such as Miller's Death of a Salesman, Norman's 'Night Mother, Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Baraka's The Dutchman, and Sartre's No Exit.