Tonight was the last of mine and Owen's marathon theatre-going month and, like THE ENTERTAINER, I finally got round to seeing a famous play I had never seen on stage or film... Peter Shaffer's EQUUS at the Gielgud Theatre. In the front row yet!

As Mr and Mrs World knows it stars Daniel Radcliffe as Alan Strang, a 17 year-old boy who has blinded 6 horses with a spike and Richard Griffiths as Martin Dysart the psychiatrist assigned to his case who is determined to understand what brought him to doing it. In the course of his interviews with the taciturn teen he uncovers the boy's fixation with horses, seeing them as all-seeing and god-like.

Premiered by the National Theatre at the Old Vic in 1973 the play was a huge hit both in the West End and Broadway - and certainly had a huge effect on someone I could mention (hi Suzanne!). in 1977 Sidney Lumet directed Richard Burton and Peter Firth in the film version. Amazingly this production directed by Thea Sharrock is the first London revival since then.

I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting. The play might have one or two niggling faults: under-developed supporting roles; the boy's parents are rather too obviously textbook cases being stern Atheist father / emotional religious mother while the ultimate question posed by Dysart - should he 'cure' the boy thus rendering him ordinary and neutered or does his fixation and passion lift him out of ordinary experience - is a bit woolly. But one and the same it is still a fascinating piece of writing and a powerful theatrical experience.

The original designer John Napier revisits the play and gives us a haunting dark space with shadowy horse stables surrounding the central raised platform while above two rows of audience seats on the level of the dress circle give the impression of a courtroom or old operating theatre.

Napier's design masterstroke however is the horses, six tall actors dressed in brown, hands clasped behind them, wearing metal platform-hooves and wrought metal horse's heads. They are led by the marvellous Will Kemp who plays not only Nugget the horse the boy most reveres but also the horseman who gives him his first experience of touching horseflesh. This scene in particular was nerve-jangling as it involved Kemp giving Radcliffe a piggy-back then racing around the stage - a tribute to his upper-body strength if nothing else. Napier's design, John Hershey's atmospheric lighting and Fin Walker's choreography combined to make them fully believable as Alan's objects of worship and desire.

Richard Griffiths seems an odd choice for Dysart bearing in mind some of his predecessors - Alec McCowan, Colin Blakely, Anthony Hopkins, Anthony Perkins, Burton - but he certainly made the psychiatrist a humane man all too aware of his own failings.
Jenny Agutter is inspired casting as the Magistrate who elects to send the boy to her friend Dysart as in the film she played Jill the stable-girl. However she was only fitfully impressive and in her major scene in the second half, arguing with Dysart as to what the boy needed from those in authority, frankly it was hard to believe she has over 30 years stage experience. Admittedly it's a thankless part, only ever appearing so the Dysart character can voice his concerns about his life. In the two tricky roles of the boy's parents, Jonathan Cullum was fine and Gabrielle Reidy was particularly moving - her Irish brogue making the character's devoutness believeable. Joanna Christie was also good in the role of Jill the stable-girl who unwittingly is the catalyst for Alan's horrific action.

Which leads us to Daniel Radcliffe as Alan Strang. I suspect the role is a bit like Juliet - difficult to cast exactly to age as it's a rare actor who can have the stagecraft required at that stage in their career. But on the whole I was impressed with his performance. Certainly as some reviews have pointed out he does not have a particularly wide vocal range but then he IS playing an emotionally-damaged teenager! He certainly has a presence however and bearing in mind the production's publicity is all centred on him and not Griffiths - despite his recent Tony Award - he is obviously an actor who can draw a crowd. It will be interesting to see where he goes with his stage career now.

Of course all the press has been about the scene towards the end of the play where Alan strips off to have sex in the stable with Jill. All I can say about this is what a lot of fush about - ah - nothing.