SOURCE: "Horses for Courses," in New Statesman, Vol. 86, No. 2211, 3 August 1973, pp. 165-66.

In thex following review, Davies praises the staging and performances of the London production of Equus, but he contends that Shaffer compromised his investigation of "our right to tamper with our fellow-beings in the cause of 'normality ' " by focusing on "a bunch of people already far gone in abnormality. "

Peter Shaffer's new work was greeted with hoots of approval by the first-nighters at the National Theatre, and indeed Equus offered much to applaud. A fine central performance by young Peter Firth as the adolescent psycho-patient for whom the horse is the sole fount of passion and focus of worship, was matched by the resourceful daring of author, director and designer in disguising a troupe of young men as two-legged horses. These Mark II centaurs, with beautifully wrought horseheads of shining chrome tubing strapped to their...