Equus

Through Equus, Shaffer explores the meaning and importance of existence in late twentieth century England. The play was set in the mid-seventies and the issues raised challenge and bewilder audiences to this today.

Peter Shaffer explores the possibility of the world being over come by convention and whether our own humanity gets replaced with normality when we fear this industrialised world.

He wanted to make us question everything and make the audience insecure by persuading them that they are the mad ones for not having a passion. The issues raised in the play are still extremely relevant to today’s society and audience, probably more relevant than when it was set in the seventies.

I think the playwright is saying that you can’t have normality and passion you can only have one or the other. Dysart symbolised a prosaic dull normality and Alan, an exciting personal passion. The playwright could be saying that everyone’s missing something, some more than other...