Equus: A blessing or a curse?

Is it a blessing or a curse for the play Equus to always be identified with nudity?

The one advantage to that is the fact that it always keeps people curious — and interested — and that can pack in the audience.

That’s a pity since there is so much more to Equus than nudity.

I first learned about Peter Shaffer’s Equus in 1981 — in a magazine article about Maan Hontiveros. They were re-staging Equus in Manila and they didn’t know any stage actress willing to do the frontal nudity that was part of the material. In an earlier staging — more than a decade before that — a Canadian actress did the part. Somewhere along the way, the name of Leo Martinez also cropped up, but I am not sure if he was in the original Equus Manila production or in the second one. But I was told he willingly did the nudity required of the troubled juvenile lead.

Since they couldn’t convince any actress from the legitimate stage to go naked on stage, Maan ended up doing it. But I read later that in moments she got conscious of her exposed body, she’d hide behind the couch that was part of the set.

I never saw any of those Manila productions I mentioned, but I saw the film once at the British Council, which used to be housed in an old residence in New Manila. I must have learned that Equus was scheduled for screening when I went to watch Irene Marcos-Araneta there do some conducting (she had always been the one musically-gifted). Somehow, I grabbed a copy of the venue’s schedule of events and saw that Equus was going to be shown there.

Just a side story about Irene: The Marcos government was already on the decline then and Irene’s life could have been in danger during that very public appearance.

To my surprise, there was no body search conducted — not even bags were checked — before the crowd was let inside the venue. I sat in the front row — only three feet away from Irene and had I been a hired assassin, I could have finished her off there. But seeing how sweet and simple this Marcos girl was (and not paranoid at all), who would have wanted to hurt her at that point? In fact, even if I was never a Marcos admirer, I was instantly turned into an Irene fan during the entire performance.

But going back to Equus — the film version. I have to admit that I had difficulty understanding the material when it was transported to the big screen, maybe because I was so much younger then.

Originally released in 1977, the movie starred Peter Firth as Alan Strang who has this inexplicable fascination for horses that eventually becomes a problem when he ends up hurting the animals. To check what’s going on in his head, Dr. Martin Dysart, (played by Richard Burton) is brought in and they go back to the circumstances that led to the young man’s violent behavior.

Although this foreign film got rave reviews — it is a Sidney Lumet work, after all — I have to say that I appreciated this ongoing Repertory Philippines production of Equus more, perhaps because I have a better understanding of life now.

Audie Gemora’s staging of this Tony Award-winning play at the Onstage in Greenbelt 1 also offers less distraction — unlike in the film where you marvel at the breathtaking countryside and at the sight of the beautiful horses.

The dialogues also come so much clearer this time — and that surely helps for better understanding of the story. Of course, Rep actors being Rep actors, they always have this British accent with them whenever they come out on stage for yet another one of their presentations adapted from a Western material. But their delivery of their lines is still closer to our Filipino English and that is much more comprehensible to the ear of local audiences — compared to the Welsh of the late acclaimed actor Richard Burton.

Oh yes, the dialogues — you have to pay attention to this when you go see Equus since that will be the key to a better understanding of the material, which is most analytical: Equus is a thinking piece and delivering it on stage is a difficult task for the director and his actors.

But this is where you see the fruits that are the results of the seeds of professionalism planted by Repertory Philippines into their talents decades and decades ago. Gemora is disciplined enough a director to keep details simple on stage and that helps the audience understand the material better because there are no distractions.

He also has an excellent handling of his actors who all deliver magnificent performances: Miguel Faustmann, Red Concepcion, Jaime del Mundo, Pheona Baranda, Tami Monsod, Roselyn Perez, Dido de la Paz and Katski Flores.

It is Faustmann, however, who gives the best performance in the entire cast. He grips the role at the very core, imbibes the character and he becomes 100 percent Dr. Martin Dysart.

But extra credit should also be given to Red Concepcion as Alan Strang and Phoena Baranda as Jill, the two youngsters, who take it all off and go through their parts like it was just the two of them in that side of the world and nobody was watching.

You forget about the nudity because their performances are so overpowering you take your mind and eyes off their naked bodies and listen to the angst of their respective roles. Everything becomes clinical after the initial shock.

But were the nude scenes really necessary?

As an analytical and thinking piece that delves not only into the human psyche, but also into relationships between spouses and parents with their children, my analysis is that the nudity is unnecessary.

I may not have been able to get it — Equus being a serious and intellectual play most likely beyond my mental capacity — but I don’t have any idea why Shaffer included the nudity when he wrote this story inspired by a true-to-life incident that took place in England a long time ago. To make the play controversial and bring in the people to the theater? Apparently it worked — if that was the plan.

Still, even with the nudity incorporated into the script, those scenes aren’t there to satisfy any prurient interests — because they really don’t and aren’t supposed to. You go to some dinky joint for that.

Equus is for serious theatergoers. But then, why was I there?

Admittedly I was also curious like many others. But I came home intellectually stimulated. Oh boy, given the little brain that I have, my head is about to explode from mental overload.