Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
The Drama Barn started off the term with the captivatingly curious, albeit disturbing, Equus, the play that has, unfortunately, become best known more recently for fuelling prurient media speculation into Harry Potter’s private parts when Daniel Radcliffe took the lead role of a production in 2007.
Equus tells the story of Alan Strang, a seventeen-year-old boy who has mysteriously gouged out the eyes of six horses with a metal spike, and Martin Dyshart, a psychiatrist who endeavours to unearth the motivation behind Strang’s gruesome crime. What unfurls is that Alan, the son of a repressed printer and his ardently religious wife, is both sexually and spiritually aroused by horsehide.
The media furore in 2007 seemed to detract from the fact that Peter Shaffer’s Equus has a lot more going for it than just nudity. The play’s subject matter constitutes an unusual theatrical experience and prompts some thought-provoking concerns such as our need to believe in a god and to discover a suitable manner of worship, the individual’s freedom to do whatever they wish, and the idea that sanity and insanity are social constructions, as Dysart fears that by curing Alan and making him ‘sane’ in a socially-accepted manner, he might remove from Alan a passion for life which most people never feel and which Dysart himself confesses he envies.
And Charlie Bruce's production at the Drama Barn this weekend made for an exciting spectacle. We were made to forget that there would be nudity, but instead were engrossed in the underscoring of these fascinating themes. The momentum of the play was sustained throughout, aided by the occasional dark lighting and drumbeat background music, which could, however, have been used more during the play for an even greater effect.
As Strang’s story forces Dysart to question his own regimented life, there is a risk that Dysart’s feelings will eclipse the inner-torment of Strang and vice versa. This occurred during the production only because Sam Hinton’s performance as Dysart was superbly emotive, reconciling me to his self-loathing. By contrast, granting that Josh Littlewood’s performance as Strang did inspire compassion at times, on the whole it was detached and not emotive enough for such an involved role. The supporting roles, although not as thoroughly fleshed out as Strang and Dysart, were performed very well, exemplified by Rebekah Brazier’s portrayal of the understanding magistrate Hesther and Cat Smith’s performance of Strang’s religion-obsessed mother Dora, who came into her own during her commandingly heart-wrenching confrontation with Dysart.
In short, this production of Equus gripped the audience, maintaining the air of excitement and proving that Shaffer’s play is an unusual, fascinating and compelling theatrical event in its own right. No wonder tickets for Friday’s performance sold out within an hour…
Equus is running at the Drama Barn at 7.30pm until Sunday 25th January. Sunday night's performance is sold out, but standby tickets may be available on the door. Arrive early to avoid disappointment.
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