Equus, by Peter Shaffer, tells the story of a psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, who is asked to treat a particularly disturbed young boy named Alan Strang.
Strang has blinded six horses for no apparent reason, having been a horse lover all his life, and through a investigations into his past, upbringing and family background, Dysart begins to create a picture of what lead to this crime.
Through this, however, he is also lead to doubt the power of his profession: he sees that Alan has more passion in his life than he himself, in an unhappy marriage, has ever had, and knows that it is his duty to take this passion from the boy in order to make him "normal".
Through the play, the audience are lead to consider injustice, the morality of psychiatry, the influence of parents, the power of religion, and, ultimately, what it means to be normal.
Synopsis (c) TheHistoryGrrl 2010
For a more detailed synopsis, see wikipedia.
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