Watching Daniel...

[Geoff Bannister]

This post is written just because I felt I needed to get a little "wow" 
out of my system.  Last night at about ten o'clock in central London, 
I felt blown away – gobsmacked - Why?

Because I had just come out from seeing "Equus".

I had arranged to go to a performance and booked a ticket two 
months ago, needing to choose a date when my daughter would 
be staying and able to help my wife with our dogs, so it wasn't until 
10:30 yesterday morning that I set out to drive the 170 miles to South 
London for a meal with old friends who were finding me a bed for the 
night. Train and Tube to Piccadilly Circus got me to the Gielgud 
Theatre wondering what to expect.

I had read up on the story and got hold of a copy of the Richard 
Burton/Peter Firth 1977 film but this performance left me breathless. 
I haven't known such an exciting and shattering theatre evening for 
more years than I care to count.

The show has now been running for nearly three months so Daniel 
Radcliffe is comfortably into his part and how! He really brings Alan 
Strang to  life with all his problems and often dominates the action 
and the stage. The end of the First Act and the end of the play are 
terrific moments when the special lighting and sound effects left me 
mentally gasping for a moment. 

I had read that many people thought that film lost the darkness 
of the stage version because it was filmed on location and I must 
say that the stage set which is  a revolving "flat" with just four large 
box shapes which are moved around plus a half circle of doors 
representing the stables with ghostly almost Thestral-like horses 
is sufficiently dark and claustrophobic for the story.

So this morning, I returned the 170 miles to home through pouring 
rain and sunshine, treasuring a night to recall at leisure, back to the 
routines of life. Sic transit gloria mundi.