Scene Design- Equus

Describe a performance that you have seen in which you were moved by a vivid scenic image. What elements of the image make it memorable for you? How did they enhance the meaning of the play (or film) for you? Do you think the image fit the director's interpretation of the play (or film)? How did it help convey the mood? When describing the image, incorporate terminology from the text and ideas discussed in lab.

I saw Equus two years ago and the most striking image I remember was the sparse stage- only a raised circular platform. The horses heads were metal and were more like frames that had not yet been wrapped in horse skin (a kind of gross image) but the point was they were representational and allowed the audience to see the actor's faces. The horses also wore horse shoe platforms that made them about 6 inches off the ground. The horses galloped on the stage at one point and the noise I could hear as the metal horse shoes struck the wooden platform was one of the main sounds on the stage besides the Alan Strang, the main character's, yelling. I think that the horses heads, horse shoes, and sparse stage complemented the story in which Alan's thoughts, relationships, and religious ideas are stripped down to their core and origins by his psychiatrist. The beauty of the design concept was that although the story of a boy stabbing the eyes of horses is horrific and weird story- the design of the set was so sparse that it could have been set almost anywhere which helps the story- which doesn't directly apply to many people (I hope) relate to Alan, his psychiatrist, and his family by letting the audience concentrate on the relationships not on the time and place. The costumes for the people were realistic and the horse's costumes were the bare minimum to indicate to the audience that they were horse, which all followed with the entire design of the play.