Equus was first produced in 1973, a time when religion was no longer a given in a population, and people were getting used to having different views from their neighbours. In it’s original 1974 production it won the Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award and the New York Outer Critics Award for Best Play. Peter Shaffer uses contrast between images and aspects of characters to examine worship, and what effects it can have on a person.

In spite of his crimes Alan is a normal boy, but can change dramatically when he is in worship. We mostly get to see him as normal when he’s with Jill; he has normal conversations with her and acts like a mostly normal boy. In contrast, he is often exhilarated and amazed whenever he hears about or interacts with horses, when he is in worship. His mother and father show some parts of his normal life; his father tries to make him read more and his mother teaches him, as she is an ex-school …show more content…
The picture was an *extreme production*, with Jesus loaded down with chains, and wrathful centurions whipping him. It was an extreme painting, which shows that Alan was passionate about christianity until the painting was torn down. Afterwards a picture of a horse seen fr om head on replaced it, and Alan used this to fill the void left after he stopped worship in Christianity. Alan adopts practices from Christianity and uses them in his worship of Equus. In one of his sessions he recited the genealogy of Equus, then bridled himself with string and began to beat himself with a coat hanger. *Beating oneself is often used in worship to show faith and atonement*, but in this case it was used so that Alan could relate to Equus, as his end goal was to become one with Equus. His mother would read him the bible and stories about horses, and when he could not worship religion, he turned easily to