When an award-winning story like equus earns cult status, you know you're in for a sensory treat

They are young and barely a year into the business of the stage.

With the oldest amongst them being 23, they have taken upon themselves a rather critically acclaimed and widely performed play, Peter Shaffer's 'Equus'.

Mumbai-based Jester Productions is all of a year old, and began with a group of youngsters back in college.

Watch the story of a 17-year-old boy with a passion for horses and the mysterious case of how he blinds them in an inexplicable fit this weekend.

Daniel D'souza, Director, Jester Productions says, "Equus is our first play and at our first showing at a college fest, Thespo, the theatre group noticed us, taking us to Prithvi Theatre".

Widely performed and also converted into a film, Equus, the play deals with issues of normalcy and insanity. The story of a 17-year old boy Alan Strang who blinds six horses in one night takes psychiatrist Martin Dysart into a maze of his own.
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In his attempts to decode the boy's mind Dysart chances upon greater questions of reality that include subduing one's natural instincts of passion- religious or otherwise to suit societal pressures.

Alan Strang on the other hand has had a troubled childhood of conflicting religious beliefs with a devout Christian for a mother (Dora Strang) and an atheist for a father (Frank Strang).

From an early age, Alan develops a fascination for horses and soon replaces his image of God with the horse-head of the Greek God Equus, both literally and metaphorically after his father strips the wall in his room of the picture of a crucifix. This obsession takes a serious turn and grips the boy's mind through his days and nights.

Through exercises and a placebo (the truth pill), Dysart begins to understand the boy's problem and comes face to face with questions of what really is the definition of normalcy and what is the correct path of life.

Talking about the choice of Equus as a first play, Daniel who also plays Alan Strang confesses, "It was the script that inspired me initially. Only the script made me go ahead with a play like this despite being risky otherwise. Eventually I realised it was not so hard to perform".

The play ran to a few full houses at Prithvi Theatre and then was invited by city's Ranga Shankara. The treatment of the play though he tells us was quite simple and did not involve endless analysis of a script that can otherwise stir up a debate by its mere mention.

"I do not believe in theorizing scripts too much and like to dive into the play and take it how it comes. There was however one simple rule I followed which was to stick to the script in every possible way and keep the scene blocking simple", says D'souza. He adds, "The challenges that came in our way to have uniformly strong performances where all the actors matched up to the same level".

At: Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar
On: November 5, 7.30 pm, November 6 and 7, 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm
Call: 2649 3982
For: Rs 149

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