Peter Levin Shaffer (born 1926) became one of England's most popular and respected playwrights; his work was equally successful in the United States, where he chose to live. Born May 15, 1926, Peter Shaffer worked as a conscript in the coal mines in Engl...
[This entry was updated by C. J. Gianakaris (Western Michigan University) from the entry by Warren Sylvester Smith in the Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, volume 8, pp. 337-356.] With less than a dozen major productions since his emergen...
With less than a dozen major productions since his emergence on the London scene in 1958, Peter Shaffer can hardly be called one of England's more prolific playwrights. But he may well be one of the most enduring and consistently workmanlike dramatists o...
Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer written in 1973, telling the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious/sexual fascination with horses.[1] Shaffer was inspired to write Equus when he heard of a crime...
Modern horses, zebras, and asses belong to the genus Equus, the only surviving genus in a once diverse family, the Equidae. Based on fossil records, the genus appears to have originated in North America about 4 million years ago and spread to Eurasia (presumably...
A play about a stablehand who mutilates horses was never going appeal to all, but "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe's assured performance in Peter Shaffer's "Equus" pleased London critics.Some theater writers expressed reservations about Peter Shaffer's play, first staged in London's West End in 1973,...
Harry Potter is all grown up. Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the boy wizard in the film adaptations of J.K. Rowling's best-sellers, sheds his magician's robes _ and everything else _ for his West End stage debut as a troubled stable boy in Peter Shaffer's "Equus."Even...
In the following essay, Vandenbroucke declares that Equus is a modern myth that employs "elements of ritual, religion, and ceremony" to "fathom and capture basic truths of man and nature. "
In the essay below, Timm compares Equus to the classical Greek dramas Oedipus and Antigone and to Racine's Phèdre in an attempt to define a modern version of tragedy.
In this review, Kerr praises nearly every aspect of the National Theatre production of Equus. This work, he states, is the "closest I have seen a contemporary play come … to reanimating the spirit of mystery that makes the stage a place of breathless discovery. "
Analyzes the poems Equus, Cats in the Cradle and Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Discusses how each poem deals with the theme of humans and their environment.
Get the complete Equus Study Pack, which includes everything but the lesson plans listed on this page. Approximately 239 pages (at 300 words per page) in 14 products. (Download a sample literature guide)
