Bold, intense and stunning theatre comes to Leamington

Peter Shaffer’s multi award-winning Equus has been considered a timeless classic for almost 40 years since it was first produced at the Old Vic Theatre in 1973.

It moved on to the West End and Broadway, was made into a film starring Richard Burton and Peter Firth and in 2007 was famously revived at the Gielgud Theatre with Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe - better known for his role as the rather different Harry Potter - playing the central characters. Loosely based on a real life case, the play tells the story of Alan Strang, a disturbed youth with a pathological religious and sexual fascination with horses, who has been driven to blind six of the animals in an attack of shocking violence.

As psychiatrist Martin Dysart struggles to understand the causes behind the boy’s actions, he realizes how closely they mirror his own struggle to find a sense of purposes, ultimately leading him to doubt the real value of his own career.

Director Gus MacDonald said: “Equus is a stunning piece of theatre - not only award-winning, but intense, dynamic, electric. It has had me hooked ever since I first got to know it way back in 1979.”

Equus, which contains nudity, strong language and flashing images, runs at the theatre in Victoria Colonnade, Leamington, from Wednesday until Saturday November 5 at 7.45pm each evening (except Sunday).

For tickets, call 0844 493 4938 from Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm or go online.