Hobbit Girl's Life: July 2010

Last night I had travelled back home to attend Equus, a community drama club production being shown in Frome. My good friend Luke Stuart had the lead part of Alan Strang, and I had never seen Luke in a play before as a lead role.
I must be honest and say I had no idea of the plot, I had been told by a few I had a surprise awaiting me. So the play started off, with the other main character of Doctor Dysart, who had many underlying problems that began to emerge as the play went on. Luke played Alan very very strongly, he portrayed a boy who was confused, yet completely submerged in his passion for Horses and Equus, the god that could be found in every horse if you summoned him. The myth was that Equus could make the rider and the animal one, and this is what Alan desired more than anything from a young age. He however, had blinded 3 horses because he felt he had betrayed Equus with a girl who worked at the stables with him. He had been driven to insanity through his desire/belief, and as Alan acts out the events that led up to the incident, he becomes more and more emotional, as surprisingly so does Dysart, who I assumed to be the neutral figure in this story. It turns out Dysart has as many problems as Alan, and becomes highly jealous of him for chasing his dream.
Alan Burgess who plays Dysart, brings such a presence to the stage, he has a friendly, warm voice, and piercing eyes that slowly revealed his troubled conscience. Yet he can turn around when provoked to show his stern, more irritable side.
Stephen Scammell who played the father Frank Strang had a powerful and intimidating voice, which was perfect for the role. He really portrayed an agitated, bottled up character that could explode at any moment. This really kept the audience on the edge of their seats, and you could really empathise with Alan being his son.
Juanita Chedzoy played Dora Strang, the religious mother of Alan. She put across a clear peace-keeper and a classic sensitive, forgiving and yet another character that bottles up her true feelings. She does have a moment where she explodes at Alan, which is inevitable due to the events in the story.
Aynsley Minty who played Nugget, the horse, really got the facial expressions right for the horse, and worked very well with Luke being so passionate towards him.
Everyone who worked on the play had clearly put it a lot of work and devotion to the production, and it really showed.
Luke's version of Alan Strang was so intricate, through the many emotions his character was experiencing, he really indulged himself when Alan had his violent mood swings and painful outbursts, and made a clear difference between decided when to talk to Dysart and not to. Especially the flashbacks from his memory, were also acted out well to show he was a much younger age than at present. Luke was so composed on stage, he had such a strong level of self control through immersing himself into his character, and not making eye contact with certain members of the audience unless required by the scene, which is something I really admire in actors as I can only imagine how hard that must be to pull off!
This was such a great example to watch Luke act professionally, as he showed a range of different emotions and settings, I will definitely consider him for my future film productions as a serious actor. However I would love to see him in a comedy, as I never stop laughing when I am around him.
I would definitely recommend going to watch this if you get the chance, it is a very good play and I thoroughly enjoyed it.