A Bit about Beheading and Naked Harry Potter

This was going to be about my new macabre toy but instead it is about Harry Potter or Daniel Radcliffe or both or maybe neither.

For those of you who don’t know Daniel Radcliffe is slated to play Alan Strang in Equus opening in the West End February 16th.

A bit of background because Equus is not the sort of thing covered in Intro to Theatre. Equus is a postmodern discussion of spirituality centered around a young man who loves horses. He doesn’t love them in a bestial way, he worships horses much the way the Egyptians worshiped the ibis or jackal. The boy then blinds his god with an iron spike.

This is heady stuff for Harry Potter. I applaud Daniel Radcliffe as an actor for breaking free of Harry Potter and I applaud whomever it was who chose to cast him. Because Dan Radcliffe is so closely tied with Harry Potter this production of Equus will be disturbing on a level that could not be achieved by any other young actor. No matter how great his performance is (and I am most keen to read reviews) there will be a tiny part of everyone’s brain chanting “Harry Potter is blinding horses! Harry Potter is blinding horses!” I don’t know about you but that idea makes my blood a little cooler.

Meandering my way back to my point (or lack there of) the script calls for an extended nude scene by the actor playing Alan Strang. While it is often performed at least partially clothed this director (Thea Sharrock) chose to make it nude. The poster for the production is stunning and perfect.

My inner theatre nerd was pleased with the choice and the poster seemed to confirm that the right choice was made. But now, now other promotional pictures (If you haven’t seen them here is the link to the official page) are coming out and the part of me that is a huge Harry Potter fan is whimpering in the corner of my mind while the theatre nerd part calls her many unpleasant names. My ITN (Inner Theatre Nerd) sees these pictures and say things like “Stunning” and “Interesting” and asks questions about the horse costumes (all the horses are played by actors in horse costumes), the set design and other production choices. My IHPF (Inner Harry Potter Fan) screams “I can see Harry’s … ummmm …. Harry! No no no no no!” and wont allow my ITN a decent look at the pics.

I wonder if this is related to my IHP’s confusion about Harry’s age. Daniel Radcliffe is 17 years old (he will be just shy of 18 when Equus ends its run), Movie Harry is (in Order of the Phoenix) 15, Book Harry is (in Half-Blood Prince) 16 and ‘Real Life’ Harry would be 26 (if he actually existed).

Maybe the problem isn’t really with my IHPF at all. Maybe it is just with being able to see Daniel Radcliffe as a round headed 11 year old and an overtly sexual teen in the space of a few moments. I am certain that if Alan Strang were being played by almost any other actor I would be able to put on my theatre/art student hat (you know the one, it is what makes it possible to not giggle when the nude model takes off his or her robe or the poet mimics orgasm) and look unabashedly at the art and consider its meaning. As the situation stands I am far too uncomfortable to look. My situation isn’t helped by the news sources stirring up controversy and showing promo pictures for both Equus and Sorcerer’s Stone side by side.

To make all of this even more difficult on my poor little head I was a one of the proponents of young Mister Potter having sex in book 7. This idea is not as creepy as it may at first seem as it is not about voyeurism but rather about growth from child to man and while the HP world is not realistic (sorry kids, magic isn’t real) the emotional development is intended to reflect that of real teens and sex and sexuality are part of that development. Now that I have seen Harry naked I wonder if I am as comfortable with the idea of Harry having sex as I first thought.

Has Equus tainted Harry Potter for me?