Interview: Daniel talks about Equus

"It sort of doesn’t really get much more serious than Peter Shaffer, than Equus, so that’s why I think this play is a fantastic first play to do" -Daniel-

Here is a new interview from Page with Daniel (danradcliffe.co.uk)

Page: Let’s talk about Equus. As you can imagine the shock factor with the announcement of Equus was received by your fans with both excitement and concern. Help me to justify to the fans why this role is so important to your career on stage, and what do you wish to achieve by performing on stage in this particular play?

Dan: The reason that this play is what I wanted to do if I was doing anything on stage, and as a first... the reason it’s so good to do it as a first play is because it IS shocking and it is quite controversial and it’s very, very thought provoking. If I had gone and done sort of some light farce or something people would have just gone, “oh but that’s not serious theatre." It sort of doesn’t really get much more serious than Peter Shaffer, than Equus, so that’s why I think this play is a fantastic first play to do.

I think people are obviously very much focused on the nude scenes and those sort of things and his relationship with horses, be it of the sexual kind or of the actually, physically violent kind at the end particularly. But I think people…the point of the play is not just in the action, it’s about what’s behind the action and it’s actually about…I mean I think the play is incredibly moving. There’s one scene where Dr. Dysart is talking to Hester, and he says...he’s talking about the fact...basically this boy has experienced levels of passion through his worship of these animals that he never could, and he never, because he feels he leads a very sterile life void of all sort of passion, and that’s what I think is incredibly important about the play.

It makes people question their values. It makes people question, what is more important; having all this passion in your life and leading your own life to the fullest, or becoming what would be termed an acceptable member of society. And so actually it does I think make people...I don’t think you can see the play and listen to it properly without thinking, “what do I hold dearest, do I hold my relationship with other people to be, to mean more to me than my relationship with the world as an organism as a sort of, as this living natural... because that’s what Alan is, Alan is so connected to nature, and to the... there’s this line in the play where Richard, sorry I keep saying Richard Griffiths, it’s Dr. Dysart but he’ll be played by Richard Griffiths, where he says, “I sit in my sort of living room reading these books about ancient Greece and about Centaurs on the plains of Argos and this sixteen year old boy is out in a field, outside my house trying to become one. And it’s that sense of oneness with nature that is so fierce within Alan and I think so few people have nowadays, well particularly a country like England.

source: danradcliffe.co.uk