Babe and Equus

Equus

Below is the description of the Equus show and it sounds a lot worse than it was. 

'In a Hampshire stable, a youth blinds six horses with a metal spike. Convicted of this appalling crime, seventeen-year-old Alan Strang is sent to a secure psychiatric hospital. Martin Dysart, the child psychiatrist assigned to him, begins to probe Alan's past in an attempt to understand his motives. Initially the boy is silent and uncooperative, but as Dysart digs deeper, he begins to win Alan’s trust and the truth gradually emerges. Finally, as Alan struggles to be free of his demons, he must relive the events of that terrible night.

Inspired by a true story, Peter Shaffer's unique psychological thriller explores the complex relationships between worship, myth and sexuality.

Equus was originally staged in 1973 at the Royal National Theatre, London. In 1977, the film starred Richard Burton and Peter Firth. In 2007, the play was revived in the West End starring Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths.'


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The costumes in the performance were very simple. They were simple everyday clothes and had nothing special about them but if they had they would have taken away from the action. The set worked very well. It looked daunting with the six horse heads/masks looking down on the action. The designer could have used a colourful and complicated set but it would have also taken away from the action. I need to go and see a show that is for children. I have found out that 'There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly' is on in Mansfield Palace Theatre on 15th May. This will be really good research to find out how adult shows are different from children's shows.

Some Photographs of the Show:

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Will Ramsey - The Stage Review 

"There’s something raw and frightening about London Classic Theatre’s production.

In Kerry Bradley’s inspired set design - a semi-circle of stone-coloured steps, like an amphitheatre in miniature - there’s no escape for the characters in Peter Shaffer’s play. With all the cast onstage throughout - watching each scene in which they have no involvement - it is as if the unhinged Alan Strang is under constant surveillance and judgement.

Michael Cabot’s direction exploits this tension, from Strang’s obsessional fantasies - including sequences of physical theatre in which he re-enacts riding on his beloved horses - to the power of the performances.

Matthew Pattimore is terrifying in the lead role. His expression is vacant, as if something fundamental - the ability to empathise for one - has been wiped from his mind. But it is also subtle. Strang makes us laugh, not least after an uncomfortable and unintentional meeting between father and son at the adult film show, although it is laughter directed at ourselves - at the sheer oddness of human beings as observed by this otherworldly young man.

In Malcolm James’s performance, Martin Dysart is fully realised as that most uncomfortable of concoctions. On one hand Strang’s psychiatrist is an outwardly rational and controlled man from whom speech seems so precisely and carefully shaped it sounds every word has been chiselled. But underneath he’s a romantic - troubled by strange dreams inspired by his love of Greek myth. James’s performance seems haunted - as clipped as he makes Dysart, with his controlled gestures, there’s a sense of this other, truer self, trapped just beneath the surface."

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Babe

I helped with Babe on Sunday and this is a summery of what I learnt from it. The ducks costumes worked very well with just a bright orange cap and rubber duck feet shoes. Lots of money could have been spent on feathers or full duck costumes but it didn't need to be complicated like that. Other costumes weren't so simple but they wouldn't have worked. The cockerel costume was also very good. It was a tailcoat tuxedo, red puffed up chest piece and multi-coloured feathers attached at the back as a tail. It went very well with the characters personality. The set for the show was a farm house and barn with a sheep trials field below the stage. The farm was hidden behind tabs when the grand sheep dog trials were happening.  

I have put these together as a start of finding the difference in a children's show and an adult show.