2023

Staatstheater Cottbus

A psychological thriller by Peter Schaffer translated to german by Ursula Grützmacher-Tabori

Six horses with gouged eyes and an inconspicuous seventeen-year-old young man as the perpetrator of an act that casts doubt on those around him about their own understanding of morals and values: This is the construct that the psychiatrist Dr. Dysart tries to find out. But while the psychologically complex world of the stable boy Alan Strang gradually opens up and reveals intoxicating, sexual and religious passions, the doctor finds themselves in an existential crisis of meaning.

In 1973, British playwright Peter Shaffer wrote this fast-paced thriller in the midst of a changing society. He asks questions about meaningfulness and responsibility in a world that seems to be dominated by optimized mechanical processes and leaves little room for passion and ecstasy.

Equus, the imaginary horse god of the lonely seventeen-year-old criminal, provokes a drama about love, passion, sexual awakening, religion and the dark side of the human psyche. With the progressive resolution of the case, the question of how we as humans place ourselves and where, clearly becomes the thematic focus of the play. Where is there room for our humanity, for the strange, for our own and isn't that what makes us human? Which organizing principles do we want to subject ourselves to, which passions do we indulge in? And what price are we willing to pay to hide the contradictions?