SOURCE: A review of Equus, in Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 25, No. 4, December, 1973, pp. 514-15.

In the review below, Kalson contends that the character of Dysart, who "embodies the central conflict which affords the play its universality, " is insufficiently developed, leaving the doctor's dilemma overshadowed by the psychological "case history."

Britain's National Theatre has restored passion to the theatre with what well may be the most controversial production of its first decade—Peter Shaffer's Equus. The play marks an auspicious return to the theatre after a three-year hiatus during which the author of Five Finger Exercise, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, and Black Comedy was frequently referred to as the brother of the author of Sleuth.

The new work, concerning the rehabilitation by a psychiatrist of a disturbed stable lad who has blinded six horses, may seem at first a new direction for Shaffer; yet it shares affinities...