Equus is a 1973 play by Peter Shaffer, about a child psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious fascination with horses.

[1] Shaffer was inspired to write Equus when he heard of a crime involving a 17-year-old boy who blinded six horses in a small town in northern England.

[2] The narrative of the play follows Dr. Martin Dysart's attempts to understand the cause of the boy's (Alan Strang) actions while wrestling with his own sense of purpose and the nature of his work.

When Firth left for Broadway, Dai Bradley took over the role of Alan in the London production, playing opposite Michael Jayston as Dr.

The narrative centres on religious and ritual sacrifice themes, as well as the manner in which Strang constructs a personal theology involving the horses and the godhead "Equus".

Dysart reveals a dream he has had, in a Homeric Grecian setting, in which he is a public official presiding over a mass ritual sacrifice.

Alan's sexual education began with his mother, who told him that he could find true love and contentment by way of religious devotion and marriage.

During this time, Alan also began to develop a sexual attraction to horses, desiring to pet their coats, feel their muscular bodies, and smell their sweat.

Dysart meets with Dalton, who tells him that he first held Alan to be a model worker, since he kept the stables immaculately clean and groomed the horses, including one named Nugget.

Through Dysart's questioning, it becomes clear that Alan is erotically fixated on Nugget (or "Equus") and secretly takes him for midnight rides, bareback and naked.

In the final scene, Dysart delivers a monologue questioning the fundamentals of his practice and whether his methods will help Alan, as the effect of his treatment will make him "normal", but at the cost of his humanity.

[6] Shaffer adapted the play for a 1977 film starring Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Eileen Atkins, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright, and Jenny Agutter, directed by Sidney Lumet.

Unlike stage productions, where the horses are portrayed by human actors, often muscular men wearing tribal-style masks,[7] Lumet did not believe this could adequately be done in a film version "because the reality he [Alan] was being watched he was going to create the dilemma within him.

[9] Welsh also felt the explicit depiction of the blinding was "potentially repulsive" and that "much of the spirit of the play is lost as a consequence.

Directed by John Peakes, it featured Richard Thomsen as Dysart, David Kropp as Alan, Carmen Decker as Dora, and Lisa Hodge as Jill.

[12][13][14] West End producers David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers revived Equus in 2007, starring Richard Griffiths, Daniel Radcliffe, and Joanna Christie in the leading roles.

In particular, the casting of seventeen-year-old Radcliffe triggered some controversy since the role of Alan Strang required him to appear nude onstage.

The cast also included Kate Mulgrew, Anna Camp, Carolyn McCormick, Lorenzo Pisoni, T. Ryder Smith, Graeme Malcolm, and Sandra Shipley, with Collin Baja, Tyrone Jackson, Spencer Liff, Adesola Osakalumi, and Marc Spaulding.

[18] This production, featuring actors Sean Gilvary as Alan Strang and Steve Lambert as Martin Dysart, received rave reviews.

He gradually manages to make a rather unattractive young creature seem not only sympathetic but redeemable while retaining his hostility and humanity.