Oh you better believe it, eh ehe eh, meh, well anyways, I've been producing Suicidal Heroes for a while now, in fact, its been 4 whole months since the start of the project and we finally hit the 50% mark. Yes we are half way there. The current length is 10 minutes and some seconds. I have just completed Scene 5 footage creation as it now needs voice over edit. There is still a lot more work to get done, but hope to speed up the production concidering I have a break from school.
LoL, maybe it will be ready by the time my birthday arrives in February. xD
[reader's reaction: lololol]
SHUT UP! I'm still blogging!
Usually its movie reviews, but I got interested in a different type of theatre.
Live theatre in that case.
Lets begin!!
[The following content is as written on my play review for class.]
Equus
“Equus,” a very dark and complex drama story performed live at Broadhurst Theatre on 44th street in New York City. (Ticket was $116.50) The play is directed by Thea Sharrock and works with Susie Cordon, the production stage manager, and Joey Parnes, the general manager. The type of theatre Broadhurst Theatre provides is the proscenium theatre with its stage props of four rectangular blocks and background stable for where the horses stay. The audience in appearance seemed to be ranged from young adults (students) to older adults at the age of eighty. There are many aspects to the play which seemed to have great relations to the stories we know in the bible as well as in-depth and complex character development that leaves the audience startled.
The story is about a psychiatrist, who goes by the name of Martin Dysart, who helps children with psychological problems. He was assigned to help a patient with a very deep, dark, gloomy, and complex mind. The patient’s name is Alan Strang of the age of 17, son of Frank and Sora Strang, the parents of the young patient.
Alan committed a very terrible crime of blinding six horses one night. Surely there are reasons to lock him up in jail for the crime committed; however everybody doesn’t know why he would randomly blind six horses out of nowhere. He loves horses ever since he was a little child, works for a stable to be near horses, and tends to them very carefully. Martin saw him as a strange one, but wasn’t going to give up on the child.
There one hour appointments, at first like every patient, is hard to open up to, but through interaction between getting to know each other better, Martin saw progress into solving the mystery. However, the progress was quite slow, but got quite a bit of information from Alan’s parents, Frank and Dora. Frank told Martin about the certain dream he has. Martin caught notice and asked what the dreams were about. Frank told him that he would check on Alan at night to see a certain strange phenomenon where Alan is worshipping a god, and would mumble words.
Martin questioned Alan about his dreams, but found it to be hard to talk to him about nearly anything. He then used a psychological hypnosis mind trick on Alan to get him to reveal what exactly the dreams about. Which revealed that every three weeks, he would sneak into the stable, take out Nugget, one of six horses, and ride him in the middle of the night and try to reach and be one with Equus, supposedly to my own understand as the god of horses.
At this point, we learn about Alan’s strange obsession with horses which lead to the existence of a horse god, Equus. Yet when we relate the strange obsession between Alan’s attachments to horses and our own god, whoever it maybe, (Jesus, Allah, Krishna, Giant Spaghetti Monster, Pink Unicorn, Purple Oyster, and tons of other god names) let’s look at our own god and our strange events we do to please our god. Are we any different from what Alan does to please his sight of god? No, we aren’t.
Martin thinks about Alan’s case and sees that he must save him, a boy trapped in his mind; he needs to open up and talk to him. If he cannot get him to confess the events that lead to the blinding of six horses, nobody can. He knows that Alan wants to confess, but can’t since he is afraid. He can’t bare the guilt if he isn’t able to help Alan.
Martin tells Alan about a truth serum that will help Alan open up, he gives him a “special pill” and a cigarette to smoke. They smoke and wait until Alan is ready to talk. When he is finally ready to tell the story, he reveals that it all started when was with a person named Jill.
Alan and Jill were talking on about in a usual conversation which leads to watching an adult film at a theatre where they saw Alan’s dad surprisingly. Alan saw that most hard working men that come home late at night aren’t really working hard, but instead having their own twisted exotic pleasure. He felt disgusted to see even his own dad and decided to walk Jill home then go on the bus. As they walked home, Jill thought to go into the stable where the horses were well asleep. At that moment, Alan was hesitate and wanted to leave, but Jill wouldn’t let him.
Jill slowly seduced Alan into actually having sex right there in the stable. Jill slowly took off her close as Alan hesitantly did as well. As they were gently fondling each other, Alan was uneasy has he heard the horses. Jill said there was no noise and told Alan to relax. Again and again Alan heard the horses as Jill told him to relax. When it came to the point of intercourse, Alan panicked and freaked out, went insane, and picked up a knife and threatened Jill to leave or he would kill her.
Towards Alan’s vision he saw the horses, starring at him. They are surrounding him with their bright eyes for they saw shame upon Alan. He wanted them to leave, he wanted to have his way with Jill, but couldn’t because the horses were in the way. He couldn’t see Jill because the horses were blinding his view. And so he stabs each horse in the eye so they wouldn’t see, but the only person that was blind was himself.
Many were still confused for why he blinded the horses when it was all in his mind, but look at it this way. Would you have sex in a church? Would you want to let God see what you’re doing? I didn’t think so either. For Alan, the stable was like a church. It was incredibly uncomfortable for him just like it would be for anybody at a church. The Gods we praise has no body or face, but a horse is a horse, there is visualization of what the god would look like. And so, Alan attacked their eyes.
The cast had various people in it. Martin Dysart, the psychiatrist, was played by Richard Griffiths. Alan Strang, the 17 year old patient, was played by Daniel Radcliffe, who is famous for his film role as Harry Potter. The nurse is played by Sandra Shipley. Hesther Saloman was played by Kate Mulgrew. Frank Strang, Alan’s father, was played by T. Ryder Smith. Dora Strang, Alan’s mother, was played by Carolyn McCormick. The Young Horseman and the horse of Nugget was played by Lorenzo Pisoni, who is famous for several films such as “See Spot Run” and television shows like “All My Children.” Jill Mason is played by Anna Camp. The horses were actually people with horse helmets, which are played by Collin Baja, Tyrone A. Jackson, Spencer Liff, Adesola Osakalumi, and Marc Spaulding.
Yes! That my friend is the Potter boy in those movies and I saw his PENIS!
[Reader's reaction: o_o]
>_> Well I did, I mean it was dangling around on stage as he runs from horse to horse stabbin the eyes in such a rage. (Hears "flopp") UGH >.<
The performance was done alright. There were some parts that left me clueless because I had difficulty hearing. The crying scene with the mother felt a bit too forced. Several scenes I felt that maybe the characters should have a bit more motion while talking. Other then that, it was done well. The best parts were Alan’s scene with the horses, it was pretty powerful. The sound of his voice and the action may very well have stunned the entire audience. The action
on stage is set to have been at a psychiatric facility, however, as Alan and Martin are talking, back flashes and various scenes occur during their talk to give the audience the visual picture.
The language use is really toned to a more serious side then in a comedic way; however there are parts where comedy was shown from the psychiatrist. There were parts where seduction played its role in body language with the scene with Alan and Jill. We saw the Alan’s uncontrollable desire and action to tend to the horses in very loving way which some people found a bit odd.
The genre of the story is clearly a dark gloomy drama. The story is focused on Alan’s strange crime of stabbing six horses in the eye. Causing great stress toward his parents, the horse owner, the girl he has in contact with, and many more. There really is no way to describe it otherwise.
The set design was very basic. All they used was four rectangular blocks to set design to various environments. The associate set designer, Ray Huessy, and designer, John Napier, did a very cleaver job. Although it doesn’t seem much in the beginning of the play, the very basic setting gets interesting as we see a stable set in the background surrounding the set as well as a circular maneuverable stage in the middle. It was a big surprise to see such basic set for a play to turn into something more than four rectangular blocks.
The lighting for the play is done by David Hersey and Ted Mather. The lighting for the play I personally loved. The color changing between the scenes were done very well and were very believable. The most interesting part about the lighting was on the horse helmets. It really showed its value and richness toward the horses and how important they are in the story. I loved how well the light blended the environment to really make people believe they were truly there.
The sound is done by Gregory Clarke and Beth Berkeley. The only times the sound becomes a major role is during Alan’s horse scene. Even though there isn’t much interacting with sound enhancements, when the time came, it was amazingly powerful. Too in-depth that it touched the souls of everybody in the audience.
The movement direction is done by Fin Walker. There are times which I would like movement to occur, but when your in a psychiatric facility, it is basically a sit down and talk sequence. Though the movement is done well when it comes to the black flash scenes as well as when the story is moving forward as the action is being displayed in the background. Finally, the last set of scenes where we see Alan stabbing the horses as they all go crazy upon the stage.
The director, Thea Sharrock, clearly brung out the best in Peter Shaffer, the writer of Equus, work in this type of play. There isn’t any interaction with the audience in this play, but there wasn’t any need for that element to be part of the play.
The meaning of the story is generally the search for passion in contemporary life. We all have the need to belong, and thus we create gods that give us light, hope, and help us from
ourselves. However, there are many unique ways of doing this and so we see how serious people can get to achieve such a thing. We are all different, there really is no other way to explain it. Sometimes we would disagree with one another on how to achieve enlightenment and sometimes fight one another to prove who is right. However, we are thinking animals with ability to reason. We all have the power to accept another person’s belief and way of life and at the same time disagree.
My overall experience from watching this play is the sense to see that there is a choice in the belief of God to an extent where freedom of choice is truly achieved. Surely we all have our belief in the super natural, but to actually portray a choice on what God can really be is amazing. I didn’t expect God to be a horse and to show appreciation in such a way Alan did is unbelievable.
BTW, theatre plays are so expensive, but I got to meet Daniel(Mr. Potter) in more ways then one. x___x
