LONDON — Transforming the boy best known as Harry Potter into a teenager with unusual sexual obsessions was never going to be easy — but theater director Thea Sharrock was up for the challenge.
She cast Daniel Radcliffe in “Equus,” which opened with much hype and strong reviews last week in London at the Gielgud Theatre.
“The whole reason for doing this was to show people that he’s an actor,” says the 30-year-old Sharrock, speaking before opening night.
“Professionally, I want to prove that he has an incredibly vast range — which he does — but I also feel as though I want to look after him,” the director confides. “Can you imagine being 17 and doing this as your stage debut? I recognized that bravery quickly, and that’s the thing I wanted to support most of all.”
Peter Shaffer’s play — which follows a psychiatrist’s treatment of a stable boy who’s been savagely blinding the horses in his care — rocked London audiences when it made its debut at the Old Vic Theatre in 1973. It’s an eerie, sexually charged play to begin with (Radcliffe, as media outlets the world over have duly noted, is required to appear nude in one scene), but Sharrock said she wanted to take this production a step farther.
“In 1973, it was shocking enough, but this time, I wanted to go darker,” she says. Sharrock enlisted John Napier, who designed the original show, to create a stark and dramatically lit set.
The play’s disturbing story line was always of great concern to Shaffer, who for the past three decades has blocked all major productions of “Equus.”
“Part of the reason he’s never let anyone revisit the play is that the part puts quite a lot of pressure on the actor himself,” explains Sharrock.
Speaking of pressure, “Equus” is Sharrock’s biggest solo project so far. “I knew the history and the impact that it had. This is a play people have been waiting to see,” she says. Not to mention that it’s gotten so much attention that during previews cast members were forced to escape the theatre via bathroom windows because the stage door was blockaded by Radcliffe fans.
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Sharrock is no stranger to the limelight; as one of London theater’s fastest-rising stars, she’s already been the artistic director of two prestigious London theatres: The Gate and the Southwark Playhouse. At 24, she scooped up the prestigious James Menzies-Kitchin Memorial Trust’s award for Young Director of the Year. But she’s not letting any of it go to her head. “I’ve been very lucky with timing,” she admits.
She’s also “exceptionally proud” of her “Equus.” “Peter’s pleased — and that’s the most important thing to me. I’ve gone through nervous and out the other side.”