History Theatre / Equus

In the play and film, psychiatrist Martin Dysart is called to investigate the case of a stableboy named Alan Strang. Alan, out of a religious and sexual fascination with horses, savagely blinded six horses with a metal spike. As he examines the boy, and his fascination, Dysart starts to have doubts about whether he can really help him, or whether turning people to a "normal" way of thinking is always the right thing to do.

* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Alan's mother Dora suspects Dysart is hunting for a FreudianExcuse in Alan's past, and angrily denies that such an excuse would be relevant.

* ARareSentence:
-->'''Alan''': What's your dream about, the special one?
-->'''Dysart''': Carving up children.

* DeadpanSnarker: Dr. Dysart has his moments.

-->'''Alan''': What's your dream, the special one?

-->'''Dr. Dysart''': Carving up children.

Famous interpreters of Dysart on stage include Creator/AnthonyHopkins, Creator/LeonardNimoy, Creator/AnthonyPerkins, and Creator/RichardGriffiths (who played Dysart opposite Creator/DanielRadcliffe as Alan).

-->'''Hesther:''' Underneath the polite facade they'll be disgusted [with Alan] and immovably English.

* DysfunctionalFamily: The Strangs. Frank and Dora are of wildly differing personalities and perspectives -- he an atheist and a socialist, she a devout Christian with no particular political leanings -- and their strongly conflicting views of how to treat their son only contribute to his psychosis.

Famous interpreters of Dysart on stage include Creator/AnthonyHopkins, Creator/LeonardNimoy, Creator/RichardGriffiths and Creator/AnthonyPerkins.

Famous interpreters of Dysart on stage include Creator/AnthonyHopkins, Creator/LeonardNimoy and Creator/AnthonyPerkins.

-->'''Hesther:''' Underneath they'll be disgusted with [Alan] and immovably English.

--> ''Hesther:''' Underneath they'll be disgusted with [Alan] and immovably English.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The scene when Alan cannot "[[TheLoinsSleepTonight perform]]" for his girlfriend is the most obvious example of the film being a metaphor for homosexuality, as it plays exactly like a scene of a teenage boy attempting to convince himself as well as his girlfriend that he is straight.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Dysart "cures" Alan, but suspects that all he did was destroy the one thing in Alan's life that was worth anything. It doesn't help that he's hallucinating Equus now.]]

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The play was inspired by the story of an actual horse blinding, recounted to Peter Shaffer with few concrete details by a friend; Shaffer then devised the story of his play from the ground up.

* NotSoDifferent: Alan and Dysart appear separated in a multitude of ways, yet it eventually becomes clear that the staid, predictable Dysart is himself obsessed with the kind of raw passion that Alan experiences, as evidenced by his monologues and bizarre dreams about ancient Greece -- but is shown as too afraid to grasp it [[spoiler:until his final lines.]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/equus_1977_film_poster.jpg]]

-->'''Frank:''' The thing is, it's a ''swiz''. It seems to be offering you something, but actually it's taking something away. Your intelligence and your concentration, every minute you watch it. That's a true swiz, do you see? [...] Mindless violence! Mindless jokes! Every five minutes some laughing idiot selling you something you don't want, just to bolster up the economic system.

-->'''Dysart:''' I'll give him the good Normal world where we're tethered beside [our animals] -- blinking our nights away in a nonstop drench of cathode ray over our shrivelling heads!

* NewMediaAreEvil: Frank Strang is something of a throwback. Being a printer by trade, he's distressed that his son doesn't like to read, but he won't permit a television in the house -- especially since his socialist heart is immensely irritated by the escapist, consumerist dream television offers.

-->'''Dora:''' If you added up everything we ever did to him, from his first day on earth to this, you wouldn't find why he did this terrible thing -- because that's ''him'', not just all of our things added up.

* PlaceboEffect: Near the climax of the play, Alan brings up the subject of truth-telling drugs. Dysart, sensing that Alan wants to tell him everything but needs an excuse to do so, gives him a "truth pill" which is really aspirin; sure enough, Alan is finally comfortable enough to recall the events of the fatal night.

* DysfunctionalFamily: The Strangs. Frank and Dora are of wildly differing personalities and perspectives, and their strongly conflicting views of how to treat their son only contribute to his psychosis.

* MaleFrontalNudity: The script calls for the actor playing Alan to appear naked on stage. Predictably, the production starring Creator/DanielRadcliffe spawned countless jokes about Film/HarryPotter showing his "wand." Curiously, the script only calls for the actor playing Alan to mime stripping, never actually requiring any nudity, and indeed Creator/PeterFirth, who originated the role on stage, did so there - before playing the scene naked and full-frontal - rather more impressively as well - in the film version. Radcliffe decided to follow Firth's lead.

* NotSoDifferent: Alan and Dysart appear separated in a multitude of ways, yet it eventually becomes clear that the staid, predictable Dysart is himself obsessed with the kind of raw passion that Alan experiences, as evidenced by his monologues and bizarre dreams about ancient Greece - but is shown as too afraid to grasp it [[spoiler:until his final lines.]]

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The play was inspired by a headline of an actual horse blinding; Peter Shaffer then devised the story of his play from the ground up.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Or rather, the horses--we're not told their fate after Alan blinds them.

Famous interpreters of Dysart on stage include Creator/AnthonyHopkins, Creator/LeonardNimoy, Creator/AnthonyPerkins and Creator/DanielRadcliffe.