Equus Revisited

So every review I read of Equus blathers on and on about Daniel Radcliff’s amazing performance and then ends with a blurb from American theatre critic Matt Wolf saying “I do admire him for taking it on. This is jumping in at the deep end. He makes you forget about Harry Potter but you can't help wishing he was in a stronger vehicle. It has not stood the test of time.” I have looked and looked but I can’t find a full review from Mr. Wolf so I have no explanation of what he means by ‘Equus has not stood the test of time.’ I don’t understand how such a relatively young work that is about the loss of spirituality hasn’t stood the test of time. I want to know just what the problems were that were material problems and not production problems. Unfortunately the production has been so over shadowed by Daniel Radcliff that I can’t find a review that discusses anything other than him so I can’t even try to glean an understanding of what the production problems or material problems were. If I had to guess I would say that the problems with making Equus resonate with today’s audience are more problems with direction than anything. I think the story itself applies more readily today than ever before in history and if it falls short in affecting the audience then the problem is not the material.

In other news

The Baraboo City Counsel, being sneaky little bastards, never tabled to a date at their last meeting and held further discussion on the zoning issue last night (without notice to the community, just slipped it into their agenda). This issue makes me so angry I could spit. One of the alder-people read a letter from one citizen to another (the letter writer opposed the re-zoning the recipient is for it) the grammar was bad, and at one point the letter writer DID call the recipient a dumb-ass, but the points were valid (The multi-family dwellings were there when you moved in, if you don’t like living next to multi-family dwellings you shouldn’t have purchased that house. If it really bothers you then move.) He then said “This is the neighborhood we are trying to protect?!?” I almost threw my glass at the TV. He was, in effect, saying that renters have bad grammar and swear and do not deserve to live in this neighborhood. How DARE he?! I am so upset by this issue and the stupidity of the alder-persons that I can’t decide if it would be better to just move and leave Baraboo to rot or to move into one of their Wards and run against them.