STAGE REVIEW : A Sure-Footed ‘Equus’ at the Lyceum

Genius versus mediocrity. The passionate one destroyed by society versus the skilled compromiser who, embraced by society, destroys himself in his longing for a passion always just out of reach.

The current revival of Peter Shaffer’s “Equus” at the Lyceum Stage offers fascinating variations on these themes, which would later occupy the playwright in his Tony- and Oscar-winning hit, “Amadeus.” On the surface, the two plays seem wildly different: “Equus” tackles the story of a boy who blinds six horses in a stable, while “Amadeus” involves the alleged murder plot of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by jealous court composer Antonio Salieri.

But the dynamics of the two are remarkably similar. Mozart had his Salieri to recognize and rage at a genius that seemed to come, so unfairly, from God. Similarly, Alan, the young boy in “Equus,” has a psychiatrist, Dr. Martin Dysart, who is the only one to appreciate and envy the boy’s capacity for spiritual passion and yet to feel that his reluctant calling is to destroy that passion for society’s sake--in this case by analyzing the boy out of it.

Like Salieri, Dysart does his damage in the robes of the priest of normalcy/mediocrity. He is urged to do it by no less than a magistrate--the keeper of society’s laws. After all, isn’t the boy crazy? He blinded six horses for a complex of reasons that involved seeing a god, “Equus,” inside those horses, and being unable to bear looking at that god inside those horses looking at him.

Again like Salieri, the doctor has enough vision to see a depth in the boy that his contemporaries cannot. But Dysart’s despair is more profound than Salieri’s because, unlike the court composer, Dysart blames not God but himself for not having felt anything deeply for years. His envy, then, is the more agonizing because it is longing in its purest state, devoid of anger.

As the horse becomes a god to the boy, so the boy’s passion becomes a god to the doctor. And it is with the most exquisite pain that he blinds the boy’s spiritual vision, in much the same the way the boy felt the need to blind the horses.

The densely layered intelligence of “Equus” requires a hand that is at once strong and delicate. Rametin, the producer and director of this Little Boots production, provided that with his very first show, “Zoo Story,” at the Sixth Avenue Playhouse last year.

He has come through again, navigating smoothly through 17 scenes (14 in the first act alone) with the help of a talented cast and crew.

Peter Rose and Robin Atkin stalk each other tellingly in the crucial push-pull relationship of Dysart and Alan. Rose, who excelled in the frothy “The Play’s the Thing” at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre last year, here plumbs the poignancy of the psychiatrist’s plight with quiet skill.

As Alan, Atkin shivers with the complicated and charismatic fireworks of emotion that alternately send him and Dysart spinning along paths of self-discovery that neither wishes to follow.

Carol Anne Hague brings a sweet toughness to the part of the girl who likes Alan; she handles the single nude scene with disarming naturalness. Jim Morley excels as Alan’s stuffy, difficult father, and John Philip Mellor lends a tart twang to the indignant owner of the injured horses.

In contrast, the supporting cast members are rather flabby in their delivery--although they don’t miss any beats, their characters are not as fully realized. Even their assumption of English accents seems to inhibit, like a horse’s bit in the mouth.

The fine technical crew from the Bowery Theatre did double time on this show. Lawrence Czoka, resident composer at the Bowery, has outdone himself with a score that marbles the mood with dense melodic lines that suggest the raw, resonant power of the horses themselves. Tom Phelps, the soon-to-be-departing technical director at the Bowery, played upon his own simple wood-on-black set with a subtle lighting design that enhances the illusions and allusions in this mystery play.

Maria Margherita Pavia designed the horse masks with an emphasis on the natural rather than the more abstract, metallic approach usually used with this play. It adds to the intensity of this fine production.

The only truly disappointing element in this show is that, as of Sunday, it has not been well-attended. It deserves to be.

“EQUUS”

By Peter Shaffer. Director is Rametin. Set and lighting is by Tom Phelps. Masks and hoofs by Maria Margherita Pavia. Costumes by John-Bryan Davis. Original music/sound design by Lawrence Czoka. Stage manager is Mahvash Azlir. With Robin Atkin, Robyn Guy, Carol Anne Hague, Trina Kaplan, John Fitzgerald Madlock, John Philip Mellor, Jim Morley, Mickey Mullany and William Peterson. At 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and at 7 p.m. Sundays through April 30. Lyceum Stage, Horton Plaza.