Equus ...

By Robert Iles - 21st Mar 2007

I'll start by admitting that I love this play ... not only is it quite a superb piece of writing but I was also once in a trully superb production in Colchester. So I approached this production with a will to love it ..

So what went wrong ...

The set was excellent, the horses (with the exception of those tacky shining eyes) were beautiful and the script (despite the changes like cutting "beeswax") remains as strong as ever. You can tell there is a 'but' coming .... and you're right ... BUT .. it just didn't work! When I sit and look at all the things I didn't like, then I'm afraid that I must point the finger squarely at Thea Sharrock .. she just didn't seem to get it. The pace was turgid, lines were played for laughs and I came out just unable to believe that those parents could have turned that boy at all and that that psychiatrist could have helped in any way!

I think that Richard Griffiths may still have been suffering from the flu that laid him low the week before but he was off the boil (except at the start of the second act!) .. Daniel Radcliffe was fine, I had no problem, though he could have done with some notes on positioning. The father was so mis-cast as to be laughable, the mother lacked emotional credibility and the rest were fine. Does that soune like I don;t care a huge amount? Well, I don't, this play should make me care a lot but this production just failed to connect.

The audience had a lot of good laughs (not necessarily appropriate!) but in the end this prodcution just lacked any oomph, any real understanding of the script or any theatrical innovation. And that's pretty unforgivable, especially at £50 per ticket!