| Equus was first produced on stage in 1973 and in its first published form Peter Shaffer
wrote of the dangers of ‘flatly setting down on paper what was far from flat on the stage,
and listing inexpressively details of the work which, in accumulation, became deeply
expressive’. John Dexter directed that first production ‘powerfully through suggestion’,
. . . he charges the action of the play with electric life. He is a master of gesture and
economy.’ More than thirty years later those words could be written about Clive Hicks-Jenkins’ imagery which now accompanies the text. He wanted to create his own universe for this new expression of Shaffer’s story. ‘Meditations and inventions, rather than recollections of past productions’ were his aim. This is a long, dramatic text of a dreadful event committed by a highly disturbed young man. The characters endeavour to explore the mental world in which such a deed could be comprehensible but the power of the play is in the extraordinary relationship of the young man and his psychiatrist. Understanding the overwhelming nature of Alan’s love of horses becomes the key and the imagery focuses on the struggle between horse and man and emergent sexuality.
Bodoni type. Regency Klassica paper. Images by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, mixed media printed from photopolymer blocks. Text printed by J.W. Northend. Cased binding with printed paper sides and chemise slipcase printed from wood, executed by The Fine Bookbindery. The book for the special edition is the same but it is housed in a drop-back box together with an articulated maquette, (one copy made up, and one on two sheets as it is designed for making up into the maquette), an original drawing and an original linocut each signed by the artist. |
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