Friday, 18 March 2011,7pm
Gyan Manch, Kolkata
Gyan Manch, Kolkata
a staging of Peter Shaffer’s landmark play
Equus delves into the mind of 17-year old Alan Strang who blinds six horses in an inexplicable fit. Through a series of encounters with a psychiatrist, we come face to face with more questions than answers. What is normal, what is worship, what is passion, what is individuality? Equus addresses these issues using the mythic figure of a horse as metaphor for worship, passion, pain and danger.
Ranan’s staging uses movement, classical dance and verbal text to explore these themes and questions, finding echoes of Equus in the world we inhabit today: a paradoxical world where inclusion and enhanced technological connectivity go hand in hand with exclusion and human disconnect. The production brings together actors, dancers, designers and technical personnel in an experience that treads the thin line between sensuality and brutality, normalcy and insanity, primal forces and contemporary pressures.
Equus premiered in Calcutta in April 2009, and has extensively evolved since with performances across the country.
“A triumph! Stunning.”
“the most ambitious yet satisfying play of the [Prithvi Theatre] festival”
The Caravan, Mumbai: December 2009
[Ranan repertory member Dana Roy is hapless assistant to Katy Roy for costume design, and has spent the last two years constructing, trying, repairing and reconstructing costumes for a production that has 150 pieces of costume for 9 cast members. Dana - on how she got conned into horse-play , and got well and truly stuck! See above images for horse head constructions]
This is why Dysart is upset. He can remove this passion, correct it. But it is to be questioned whether the removal of this dark worship is indeed a ‘good’ thing. This worship is abnormal but the Normal may not be recommended: “The Normal is the good smile in a child’s eyes – all right. It is also the dead stare in a million adults.”[10] (my emphasis) In which case, the abnormal is to be prized and treasured. Dysart says: “I only know it’s the core of his life,” and admits that compared to Alan’s worship “[m]any men have less vital with their wives.”[11]
From Katy Lai Roy, costume designer for Equus:
"Ranan’s Equus takes another leap into another world, stretching Shaffer’s text in unexpected visual directions. In the eyes of the troubled young protagonist, Alan, the “real” world of parents and other people is dull grey, remote to him. He inhabits his own secret and fantastical world of beautiful, god-like horses. But he sees them even in his interactions with the “real” world.
Director Vikram Iyengar’s brief to us early in the production design was that the horses in Equus must be sensual yet powerful. And that led me, personally, into the most fun, experimental, difficult and satisfying costume design I’ve done so far. Like Alan, I fell into this intense and visceral world. I never want to leave….."
[March 2011]
Below:
Costume and make-up ideas for Equus: ideas to fruition - January and April 2009
How to make horse heads.
(The following is the ongoing dialogue while creating Equus costumes, severely paraphrased and edited since in reality the process took months and, as stated before, is on going)
Vikram: We are doing Equus. Could we have something for the actors playing horses to wear, to suggest horses. They shouldn’t literally be horses and should suggest power, edginess, grace, strength. They should be fantastical and other worldly, sensual and god-like.
Katy: Well….we could go part amazonian, part punk, part roman maybe a little gothic (hurriedly scribbles fantastic drawing) Oh and we can throw in some pearls.
Vikram: I like it. Dana you got that?
Dana : Errr…yeah
Vikram: By the way the horses need to become other human characters, so they need to change in and out of their costumes at super speed.
Dana: Ok.. erm .. yeah that’s do-able, with quick change costumes.
Katy: Oh, so we can’t get the horse-actors to shave their heads and have punk hairdos?
Vikram: No, they have to come back and be boring old Frank and Dora.
Katy: Ok how about we make horse heads then.
Vikram: Great then. Horse heads.
Katy: The heads should have some height to them, a lot of hair. With a punk feel about them. Lots of studs
Vikram: But there’s a lot of physical work, so the hair can’t get in our way
Katy: And it should give the feeling of horsiness
Vikram: And it should be cheap, and easy to pack for when we travel to different cities
Katy: The horse headgear would have to withstand sweat, and keep its shape. And it should be lightweight.
Vikram: And they shouldn’t fall off while we are dancing
Katy: or while dancers are doing chakkars at 100 km per hour.
Vikram: or when I’m in the middle of a chakkar while hanging upside down.
Katy: and they should all be different
Vikram: Oh and can you make two for each horse? One black and one white. Got all that
Dana: Erm… yeah
Vikram: Good, then go make them.
[Sympathy messages to Dana can be sent to rananindia@gmail.com. Or you can show your solidarity by attending the shows and being wowed by her hard work]
‘What dark is this?’ -- Worship in Peter Shaffer's Equus'
[Lav Kanoi - MA student at the Department of English, Jadavpur University - took over the role of Alan Strang from Shadab Kamal in Ranan's Equus in June last year. Excerpts from his paper on the playtext presented at the recent 'All India Students' Seminar 2011']
What is magic? What is the function of magic? Can worship be magic(al)?
In Peter Shaffer's acclaimed play Equus, Alan Strang, a passionate young boy of seventeen faces insurmountable difficulty in his continued realisation of divinity - in his worship of horses (which is largely condemned by a vacuous, unsympathetic society). Under enormous strain one night, he blinds six horses - his very Gods - with a hoof pick. The play explores what it means to be modern, and the place of faith or worship and of passion (in the modern sense) in modern life. The paper will assert that in so far as worship can transform the individual and society, make it vital, i.e. revitalise society, worship is magical.
This will result in a reassessment of what the magical is and its place in society.
In Peter Shaffer's acclaimed play Equus, Alan Strang, a passionate young boy of seventeen faces insurmountable difficulty in his continued realisation of divinity - in his worship of horses (which is largely condemned by a vacuous, unsympathetic society). Under enormous strain one night, he blinds six horses - his very Gods - with a hoof pick. The play explores what it means to be modern, and the place of faith or worship and of passion (in the modern sense) in modern life. The paper will assert that in so far as worship can transform the individual and society, make it vital, i.e. revitalise society, worship is magical.
This will result in a reassessment of what the magical is and its place in society.
The Department of English, JU and ASIHSS: All India Students’ Seminar 2011
The Real, the Magical and the Virtual:
The Representation of Reality and the Politics of Representation
The Real, the Magical and the Virtual:
The Representation of Reality and the Politics of Representation
Vivekananda Hall, 9-10 March 2011
[…]
Alan Strang’s worship of Equus derives in part from his childhood: Bible readings, stories of a horse named Prince, cowboy tales, and a lived felt experience of the Horse. In all these the horse is a common factor, of course, but there is also an awareness of an exceptionality, of that which is special and there is an awareness of mystery, and the presence of mystique – Prince is a horse “whom no one could ride except one boy”,[1] and the rider that sat upon the white horse in Revelations “was called Faithful and True. His eyes were as flames of fire, and he had a name written that no man knew but himself.”[2]
Prince can be ridden by no boy except one and only by that one. This is not unlike the wielding of Excalibur which can be done by no one except King Arthur. There are other examples of magical one-to-one correspondence, as between wand and wizard. The other feature of the magical here is mystique: there is a secret about the rider of the white horse in Revelations, no man knew his name – just like Equus’ name, it is a mystery to the layperson. Magic must be mysterious in order to work, whether it is a stage trick or an impossible performance. The actor, like the action of magic, stands out, special and often incomprehensible.
“Hesther: …[T]here really is nobody within a hundred miles of your desk who can…perhaps understand what this is about. Also…
Dysart: What?
Hesther: There’s something very special about him
Dysart: In what way?
Hesther: Vibrations… They’re quite startling. You’ll see.”[3]
[…]
But who is Equus? And what does his worship involve? Equus is a Jesus like figure in chains “for the sins of the world”, 6 yet like Jesus a Saviour:
 | |
| Lav Kanoi in Ranan's Equus |
Dysart: What does he say to you?
Alan: 'I see you.’ ‘I will save you.’
Dysart: How?
Alan: ‘Bear you away. Two shall be one.’
Dysart: Horse and rider shall be one beast?
Alan: One person! [4]
In this exchange, apart from the promised salvation in a personal and personalised mythological discourse that borrows heavily from Christianity, there is the expressed possibility of a (magical) union with God. This union involves the mind and soul; but more challengingly to a non-sympathetic society, this worship also involves the body. “With my body thee I worship!”[5] In this kind of worship a transformation is effected. Equus’s flanks, hooves, mane are Alan’s own as they turn into one person, one being in the action or performance of worship. He becomes a centaur. Such a transformation is deeply vital, at the root of life, and deeply revitalising. It is possible only because of a passion, not in the Christian sense, which involves everything that one has – vital passions.
[…]
This overwhelming power of the Equine felt in Alan upsets society because any kind of life or passion is missing in the society represented in the play. What Alan gets in the field where he “stands in the dark for an hour, sucking the sweat of his God’s hairy cheek”,[6] he can not get in a society that needs “electrical things”. He is entirely out of place in a supermarket, for example, where he is forced to work by his Dad.
In the supermarket, there is no possibility of connection with anybody, or any body. Electrical things, after all, don’t throb – not with life. For a sarcastic Alan, “it’s fun”.11 Pifco Automatic Toothbrushes, Philco Transistor Radios, and Remington Ladies Shavers are no replacement for the living - the Human or the Equine. This isolation is an old and recognised condition of modernity – displacement, disconnect. The life of the supermarket is no life at all. Society lacks it, and can not understand it. This life is something missing even from Dysart’s own. No wonder Alan says of the supermarket “it might just drive you off your chump.”[7]
In the supermarket, there is no possibility of connection with anybody, or any body. Electrical things, after all, don’t throb – not with life. For a sarcastic Alan, “it’s fun”.11 Pifco Automatic Toothbrushes, Philco Transistor Radios, and Remington Ladies Shavers are no replacement for the living - the Human or the Equine. This isolation is an old and recognised condition of modernity – displacement, disconnect. The life of the supermarket is no life at all. Society lacks it, and can not understand it. This life is something missing even from Dysart’s own. No wonder Alan says of the supermarket “it might just drive you off your chump.”[7]
Evidently, Alan himself gets driven off his chump eventually, but not by the supermarket nor merely because of such a Modern problem, but because of the nature of his worship. In this worship, already complicated by mind and body, there is an additional complexity: there can only be Equus. “Mine! ...You’re mine! ... I am yours and you are mine!”[8] There can be no Jill – the girl with infinite eyes who fascinates Alan.
This in turn complicates the relation of the boy who rides Prince. That only one boy can ride Prince remains true. But that one boy can ride only Prince - no other horse, no other person. Alan is, in a sense, trapped in his worship of Equus. That which freed his life, now does not let him live freely. Under this condition of complete ownership, Alan does the unimaginable unimaginable one night. He turns around and blinds six horses.
[…]
Alan’s worship is destructive not merely because of its roots or its imagery, but also because it destroys itself. Yet, destructive or destroyed, it is his own. And, destructive worship is not necessarily a bad thing. It still lets him live, completely. Yet, it must be conceded that this worship is alarming. This dark “shadow of a giant head”[9] is frightening, incomprehensible, yet vital. It is destructive yet it cannot be condemned. Where the passion for worship comes from is mysterious and the worship itself is mysterious, but not by itself ‘bad’. The question of correction that is raised is not readily solvable.
This is why Dysart is upset. He can remove this passion, correct it. But it is to be questioned whether the removal of this dark worship is indeed a ‘good’ thing. This worship is abnormal but the Normal may not be recommended: “The Normal is the good smile in a child’s eyes – all right. It is also the dead stare in a million adults.”[10] (my emphasis) In which case, the abnormal is to be prized and treasured. Dysart says: “I only know it’s the core of his life,” and admits that compared to Alan’s worship “[m]any men have less vital with their wives.”[11]
[…]
In conclusion, as Alan’s worship features aspects of the magical, it may be maintained that it is magical. This worship may be dark, but it is not inhuman. The source of this worship is vitality. Our vitality, then, is what constitutes the core of magic. Magic, therefore, is not inhuman. It is what lies deep within us. It is what makes us human.
