SHAFFER PETER

L'home viu fascinat per la seva condició aparentment privilegiada en un món hostil i la fe arriba alla on no poden arribar-hi els límits de la raó. Més enlla dels límits l'ésser adora cegament, idolatra i corre el risc de perdre's en el fanatisme. Equus és una història més enlla dels límits, una invitació a reflexionar sobre l'adoració mística i carnal, sobre els patrons inconscients dels quals emanen les nostres conductes, un text brutal que ens qüestiona les nostres pròpies pors i temors i ens condueix a plantejar-nos el sentit de l'existència en un món encegat per la rutina, per la faula moral i pels tabús ocults en el nostre llenguatge, creences i accions.

When a deranged boy, Alan Strang, blinds six horses with a metal spike he is sentenced to psychiatric treatment. Dr Dysart is the man given the task of uncovering what happened the night Strang committed his crime, but in doing so will open up his own wounds. For Dysart struggles to define sanity, and justify his marriage, his career, and his life of normality; ultimately he must ask himself: is it patient or psychiatrist whose life is being laid bare? The most shocking play of its day, Equus uses an act of violence to explore faith, insanity and how the materialism of modern life can destroy humanity's capacity for pain and passion.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a genius, the most brilliant musician the world will ever see. But the court of eighteenth-century Vienna doesn't recognize his talents - only Antonio Salieri, the Court Composer, does, and he is tortured by what he hears. Seething with rage at the genius of this flippant buffoon and suddenly aware of his own mediocrity, Salieri declares war and sets out to destroy the man he sees as God's instrument on earth. Peter Shaffer's award-winning play is a rich, exuberant portrayal of a God-like man among mortals, and lives destroyed by envy.

In the rich, humid air of sixteenth-century Peru, Atahuallpa, the Sun-God King, meets Pizarro the Conquistador, representative of the Spanish Empire at its most insatiable. While the Inca King is convinced of his own immortality, the Spaniard is cynical and greedy, leading to a collision of power and authority. Soon both men are locked in a struggle for survival; one of them must die and the survivor must face mortality, and the terrible truth of the world he lives in. Moving and atmospheric, The Royal Hunt of the Sun is an unforgettable drama of pride, empire and the conquest of bodies and souls.