Equus 11/20/05 East-West Players

On Sunday I attended a performance of the critically acclaimed play, Equus by Peter Shaffer. This performance starred George Takei or the Original Star Trek series. For those of you unlike myself, who do not gobble up science fiction television, writings, and blogs, Mr. Takei played Mr. Sulu on Star Trek. Reluctantly I admit to a fascination with asian culture and found out about the show from Mr. Takei's blog (as I am fascinated by celebrity blogs too,. my favorites being Margaret Cho and Kevin Smith for their insights and conversational tone).

Also, when I was a theater student at USC, before switching to Cinema-Television, I had read and discused Equus in a class there. It's interwoven dialog style did not make sense to me when I was reading it so I wanted to see how it came together onstage. To give you a sense of the extremities of this play, I make mention of the sign on the theater's box office, "This show contains graphic nudity, loud noises, and coarse language." This is paraphased, but you get the point. To further drive it home, my friend sitting next to me looked over at me at intermission and said, "You're weird", as if somehow I was responsible for the playwrite's words and director's actions. I laughed heartily.

George's performance as psychiatrist Martin Dysart was at turns represssively British, breathtakingly frustrating, and rapturously jealous. He displayed such a range of emotions while treating his fragile, distraught patient, an adolescent, named Alan who possesses a unorthodox obsession with horses. Mr. Takei's voice is distinct and captivating. His words with their bass resonance and slight accent transport me to the office where he does his psychiatric work. I was in heaven closing my eyes and listening to him.

The nudity in the play was less shocking then I expected. It was far less shocking then the scenes with men as horses interacting with Alan in his devotion and defilement. The horse costumes and men playing them were beautiful. They showed the splendor and majesty of the animals with proud tosses of their heads. A great piece of theater for adults to enjoy.