Any questions about Noah Johnson being one of Honolulu's most promising and daring young actors can be laid to rest now that the Actors Group production of "Equus" is up and running. Director Brad Powell has assembled a cast loaded with talent and stage presence. Johnson is the foundation and the cornerstone in a powerful production. Strong ensemble drives
By John Berger
a play with horse powerIt's the third time this year Johnson has played a weird or odd character. The role of Alan Strang, a violent yet vulnerable English teenager, is the most demanding and complicated of the three. Alan has been confined to a mental hospital after blinding six horses. He has some major issues to work out regarding horses, sex, Christianity, his relationship with his parents, his perception of Jesus as tortured martyr, his perceptions of his parents, television and women.
The character is complex. The role is demanding. Johnson wears it like a second skin and reaffirms the promise shown in impressive performances in Hawaii Pacific University's "Dark of the Moon" and TAG's "Gross Indecency."
Playwright Peter Shaffer adds a parallel story from the perspective of Alan's psychiatrist, Martin Dysart (Eric Nemoto). Dysart finds himself increasingly unsettled by the circumstances and limitations of his own life as he plumbs the catacombs of Alan's psyche.
Hayden de M. Yates introduces himself to the TAG stage with a perfect performance as Alan's earnest tradesman father. Perhaps it's easier to appreciate Yates' performance with a little background knowledge of the strict views on social class and "knowing one's place" that long defined English society, and the attitudes of the upper classes toward those "in trade," but Yates does a superb job with the role. Mr. Strang obviously contributed to Alex's psychological problems, but Yates' performance ensures that Strang isn't made into a monster.
Frances Enos (Mrs. Strang) gives an equally convincing performance in a second essential supporting role as Alan's religious mother.
Devon Leigh has the smallest of the three major supporting roles, and it, too, is essential to the tale. Leigh brings a fine blend of coquettishness and charming sweetness as the sexually experienced woman whose interest in Alan becomes the catalyst for his horrible act. Honolulu should see more of her in the future.
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 11 "Equus"
Where: The Yellow Brick Studio, 625 Keawe St.
Cost: $10
Call: 591-7999
Director Powell clearly enjoys using ensemble performances to embellish secondary scenes. He made good use of his bit players while directing TAG's "Gross Indecency," and "Equus" benefits from the bit players' work as well. Alan's ill-fated visit to a porn theater takes on hilarious overtones as Peter Bunn, Todd Middleton and William Raye Street portray anonymous film fans.
Bunn, Middleton and Street also portray three horses. Kurt Wurmli's magnificent rattan-and-leather horse head masks, and basic wooden blocks strapped to the actors' feet, suffice to suggest the larger-than-life presence of horses, particularly one named Equus, in Alan's life and psyche.
Middleton also designed the revolving stage that helps suggest the expansive physical and psychological dimensions of the scene that is literally the climactic moment in Act 1.
Dorothy Stamp is steady and dependable as the colleague who becomes Dysart's sounding board. Kathleen Anderson completes the cast as Dysart's anonymous nurse.
"Equus" is set in a different time and place but remains challenging and relevant modern theater. The issues it raises remain unresolved. Who do we blame when a child or teenager commits a horrible act? The father or mother or both? Television, rock 'n' roll, comic books, sex, Jesus, organized religion, class distinctions or "society"? All of the above?
America no longer buys into the theory that "not guilty by reason of insanity" is an acceptable form of legal closure for heinous acts. What will solving the riddle of Alex's behavior do for the horses or their owner?
Anyone seeing "Equus" for the first time will enjoy the quality of the performances and the challenge of anticipating how each piece of new information helps reveal the circumstances that precipitated Alan's crime.
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