Equus Program

Authors

University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre

Files

Description

Written by Peter Shaffer

Directed by Walter Stump

This production was entered in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) XXXIX.

Publication Date

Fall 10-2006

City

Gorham, ME

Keywords

Theatre, University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre, Theatre Program, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Theatre and Performance Studies | Theatre History

Comments

Cast

Martin Dysart ... John Coons
Alan Strang ... Ian Carlsen
Nugget ... Brianna Thiviege
Nurse ... Kate Caouette
Hesther Salomon ... Mia Perron
Dora Strang ... Mary Bastoni
Frank Strang ... Jeffrey Toombs
Harry Dalton ... Dan Goldstein
Jill Mason ... Autumn Rose
1st Horse ... Ryan Nash
2nd Horse/Horsemen ... Jesse Leight6n
3rd Horse ... Gary Thayer
4th Horse ... Jessica Savory
5th Horse ... Casey Turner
6th Horse ... Lindsey Higgins

"Peter Shaffer is arguably one of the greatest living playwrights. His play Equus has won several awards in England and in the United States, including a Tony Award for Best Play. Critic Walter Kerr called the play 'remarkable; it is powerfully close to reanimating the spirit of mystery that makes the stage a place of breathless discovery.'

"Similar to Nietzsche's concept of the Apollonian and Dionysian aspects of our personalities or Jung's theory of the Racial Unconscious, Shaffer believed a part of us still yearned to understand the primal urges common to us all. In Equus the question is posed: Do we ignore the free flowing passionate soul lurking deep within our psyche or do we give ourselves up to the intellectual sterility of modern life? Dysart is faced with the dilemma of "curing" a passionate god-worshiping Alan Strang and making him a normal member of society, or allowing the boy to remain in contact with the gods of old. The more Dysart probes into Alan's psyche, the more he realizes his own need to understand his own passion. He does chase the spirits from Strang only to find himself possessed by them. He does not like what he sees. Modern man, he decides, is waging a war against the gods of old by trying to exorcise them from our thinking and educational cannon. If we do this, as Equus seems to suggest, we do it at our own peril." - Walter Stump

This is an item from our University Archives in USM Special Collections. If you are interested in obtaining copies of any of the items in the collection please view our Reproduction Policy and contact the department. If the material is to be used in a public forum.

Please fill out the Permission to Use Form and send it to the department.

Please cite as: [Title], Special Collections, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

For any other questions please contact the Special Collections Department at: susie.bock@maine.edu.

Recommended Citation

University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre, "Equus Program" (2006). Programs 2006-2007 Season. 2.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/theatre-programs-2006-2007/2

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