WHILE previous stagings of Equus frequently focused on the young protagonist Alan’s infatuation and ultimate blinding of his equine charges as a lament for the loss of mysticism and spiritual passion in a materialistic world, this English Touring Theatre production brings out all the latent homoeroticism in the text.

The intimacy and passion shared between the young stablehand and Ira Nubella’s proud physical embodiment of Nugget, the horse at the centre of his obsession, highlights the boy’s otherwise arid life.

As the horses, the semi-naked and muscular performers move with equine grace and strength and they become objects of deification for Ethan Kai’s tortured teenager Alan as he lives out a midnight fantasy at the stables in order to escape a world of suppressed sexual desire and impotence.

Jaded psychiatrist Dysart (Zubin Varla) becomes obsessed with this new case, stripping away the boy’s protective carapace of TV-jingle responses to reveal his secret world of sensual pleasure and fear in the skin, sweat, bridles and chains of his equine mysticism.

The tortured soul in Schaffer’s piece is as much Dysart as Alan, as the psychiatrist gradually unravels the boy’s hidden life. Varla’s complex characterisation stands out in a world of emotionally impotent stereotypes — Syreeta Kumar’s cold and puritanical mother, Robert Fitch’s sexually suppressed father bent on self-improvement and Ruth Lass’s childless, work-obsessed JP.

A cold, bare stage and stark lighting symbolise Dysart’s clinical world, while Shelley Maxwell’s choreographed sequences of horse and human interaction, in vivid contrast, capture the essence of sensual passion.

The final scene, with Dysart cradling his exhausted and naked patient after a re-enactment of Alan’s episode of cruel brutality, is as much a recognition of his own suppressed desires as a resolution of the triggers for the boy’s actions.

First produced when homosexuality was still classed as a psychiatric disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, this production, directed by Ned Bennet, is a slick and insightful exploration of the hidden or denied passions that still regularly hit the headlines.
    
Tours nationally until May 11, details: ett.org.uk