Equus

Peter Shaffer’s monumental – and monumentally disturbing – psychological thriler Equus was barely touched for the three decades after it debuted at the National Theatre in the mid-’70s, spending three years in the rep. But the intensely disturbing drama about a young boy who blinds six horses has snuck back into circulation of late. There was, of course, the 2007 West End production that starred Daniel Radcliffe: still making the Harry Potter films, but eager to show there was more to him than them. A decent touring production did the round in 2019. And now it gets a boutiquey revival at the Menier, with Toby Stephens starring as Martin Dysart, the tortured psychiatrist trying to get to the bottom of why his patient Alan Strang did such a terrible thing. It’s directed by veteran director Lindsay Posner, who seems to have a mine residency at the Menier at the moment what with his recent production of The Holy Rosenbergs and summer West End transfer for his production of The Truth.