The play opens not with the crime, but with the aftermath. We are introduced to Martin Dysart, a child psychiatrist who is tasked with treating the perpetrator, a seventeen-year-old stable boy named Alan Strang. The title Equus is derived from the Latin word for "horse," and the animal serves as both a plot device and a central deity within the play’s mythology.
Shaffer, P. (1973). Equus. London: Heinemann. Equus Peter Shaffer Pdf 61
Shaffer insisted that the horses must be actor-musicians, creating the clatter of hooves with coconut shells and the breathing of the god with human lungs. Page 61 in these technical scripts features the diagram of the "Equus square"—the theatrical pentagram where Alan performs his ritual. Researchers searching for the PDF often need these stage directions for university dissertations on theatrical minimalism. The play opens not with the crime, but with the aftermath
Shaffer was inspired to write Equus after hearing a chance remark from a friend at the BBC about a real-life crime in northern England, where a youth had blinded several horses. Fascinated by the inexplicable nature of the act, Shaffer constructed a fictional psychological detective story to explore the possible motives behind such brutality. Plot Summary: The Psychiatric Detective Story Shaffer, P
