In this essay, Busiel discusses the element of memory in Shaffer's play. Developed in collaboration with director John Dexter, the playwright's depiction of Alan Strang's repressed memories is, in the critic's opinion, the most stunning element of Equus. As Busiel writes, the scenes of abreaction, in which the past is represented theatrically rather than discussed verbally, lend the play a delicate balance, creating moments where the past collides with the present, sexual desire with religious practice, and realism with abstraction.
Equus is a play in which present and past collide and intertwine in spectacular and thematically significant ways. Psychoanalysis (a process of evaluating mental health that was developed by Sigmund Freud) drives the plot forward, as the psychiatrist Martin Dysart succeeds in drawing out of Alan Strang a series of repressed memories. His intention is.....
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