March 11, 2003
Del Mar Drama Offers Peter Shaffer’s Hauntingly Hypnotic Play Equus
Beginning March 28
Critically-acclaimed play examines adolescent violence and society’s
shaping of youth
Del Mar Drama continues this year’s theatrical season with Peter Shaffer’s
Equus, a haunting play that focuses on the underlying causes of an adolescent
boy’s seemingly senseless act of violence. Based on actual events in England,
the play reveals the story of a disturbed 17-year-old Alan Strang, who blinds
five horses with a metal spike, through psychologist Martin Dysart’s analysis
of events.
“Violence, especially by children, has worked its way into the fabric of
our daily existence,” says Kim Frederick, associate professor of drama.
“And, it seems we wear it comfortably.” The director refers to the
news headlines covering deadly assaults committed by adolescents, including
the Columbine High School and Jonesboro, Arkansas shootings, and more recently,
the 17-year-old sniper caught with his adult accomplice in the Washington, D.C.
area.
The production opens March 28 in Bartlett Theater, located in the Fine Arts
Center on Del Mar College’s East Campus, Ayers Street. Performances are
Fridays and Saturdays, March 28-29 and April 4-5, at 8 p.m., Sundays, March
30 and April 6, at 2 p.m. and Thursday, April 3, at 1 and 8 p.m. Cost is $6
for general admission, $4 for senior citizens and Del Mar College employees
and $2 for students.
WARNING: This production contains nudity and material that may not be appropriate
for all audiences. No one under age 17 will be admitted without a parent or
guardian.
“I’ve treated this production as an educational experience for our
students,” says Frederick. “This piece is highly spiritual. It examines
Alan’s worships of how free, wonderful and naked Equus is.” Frederick
says that the adolescent has been tugged between his parents–a highly religious
mother and atheist father. During flashbacks throughout the play, audiences
will see how Alan has crafted his own religion around horses and transferred
his existing religious beliefs to the physical incarnation of Equus, the horse
god.
Additionally, Dysart grapples with his own self-doubt and envies the youth's
greater sense of passion. “Martin Dysart is a shell of a person,”
adds Frederick. “He goes through life saving young people, but he can’t
save himself. He begins to question his right to return Alan to ‘normalcy.’”
Equus earned Shaffer a Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle
Award, the Drama Desk Award and the New York Outer Critics Award for Best Play
in 1975. The play’s Broadway run included over 1,000 performances. In 1977,
Richard Burton starred in the film version.
“This production is a huge journey requiring both actors and audiences
to ask questions of each other and the whole of society,” Frederick says.
“When youth act out their frustrations, who’s to blame? The individual?
The parents or lack of? Society?”
Del Mar Drama’s production of Equus offers audience members to opportunity
for self-exploration.
Del Mar Drama presents the play as part of the Corpus Christi Festival of the
Arts, in cooperation with the City of Corpus Christi Arts and Cultural Commission.
For ticket reservations and more information, call the Del Mar Drama Box Office
at 698-1509.
-DMC-me