Equus at Stratford East and tour

Wow, great to hear you are doing OK!

Glad you're making a good recovery Phantom of London. You've been through the mill.

manchestertheatres.com are doing £16.50 tickets (price inclusive of fees) for the entire Salford Lowry run.

Is there a special code for this, david, or a link?

You're clearly very special, david. 

On manchestertheatres.com, the only special offers I can find listed for the Lowry are Home, I'm Darling and The Great Gatsby, and all I get are 'normal' prices when I try to book. 

Cracked it. Many thanks.

I love TheatreBoard  (and you, obvs).  

I'm now going to spend some time in a dark room!

A great Saturday afternoon (despite the naff weather) at the Salford Lowry watching this production. A very bleak and disturbing play examining the psychology of forbidden desire. Ethan Kai as Arthur Strang was brilliant and his performance particularly in Act 2 was a highlight. Even though there are no sets to speak of, the lighting and sound design for this production really are 1st class and definitely added to the atmosphere within the different scenes (the disco lighting during the play a definite highlight that was well done but not in your face).

The realisation of the portrayal of the horses by the cast I thought was cleverly done and came across really well. I think this is the kind of play that benefits from being staged in smaller auditoriums as I think you would loose some of the intensity of the final scenes in Act 2.

The only grumble for me was as crowblack has mentioned was the issue of seeing some of the play due to poor sight lines because of a lot of stuff is done with the cast sitting on the stage floor and due to the seat arrangements in the auditorium and fair bit of shifting around in my seat was needed to try and get a decent stage view.


It was nice to see an outing of a local school’s drama class who where sat behind me. Not a peep out of them all afternoon and seemed to enjoy the production. One gentleman who engaged with the class unfortunately mistook the teacher as one of the students. Thankfully she didn’t mind.

A 4* production.

Back home (still raining and there is now a moat in front of the house - so many leaves down it's like a lime green autumn). Yes, excellent production - shame it's the last day because it's too late to recommend to friends (or take my Mum, who I think would love it), though there are still a couple of tour stops to go. I think War Horse must have killed off the old style horse head and I think it's the better for it. Excellent performances, especially Ethan Kai, who I'll look out for in future. Norah Lopez Holden is Mancunian and was impressive in a much larger role in The Almighty Sometimes last year, and another young actor to keep an eye on I think.

Does anybody have any info on discounts for this at the Yvonne Arnaud?

I watched this last night at Newcastle's Northern Stage and was unsure beforehand as I knew little about the play but was working late in the area so took a chance. Despite a slow start where I was mildly irritated by the Doctor, I really warmed to this. Incredible acting and the dance sequences were spellbinding to watch.
Really would recommend his production.

The Northern Stage really is a local gem. So far apart from the scandalous prices of the Theatre Royal and ATG run Sunderland Empire. Tickets start at ten pound and you can get a pint for under four pounds! How rare is that in a theatre these days. I really cannot speak highly enough of this venue and it's certainly worth a visit if anyone is in this neck of the woods.

Having resisted reading press reviews and even this thread until recently (because I consider the subject matter so unpleasant that I didn't even want to think about, let alone see the play), I yielded to the positive word of mouth which managed to permeate my cordon sanitaire.

Leaving it late helped as it enabled me to get a cheap ticket for today's matinee (at the Yvonne Arnaud, Guildford) and I knew the forecast was poor - you wouldn't want to be closeted indoors with this on a sunny day. The audience - a little sparser than normal at matinees - was an odd mixture of some of the usual older matinee crowd but also several large college or school groups, as you might expect.

I hadn't seen the play since the Watford Palace production in 1975, ie well over 40 years ago, so I didn't remember the detail but had retained a strong impression of its unpleasant nature, and having seen it again, I'm sure there won't be a third time, but not because this isn't a superb production, as it is; better than the play itself imo. My comments would echo those of others: I didn't think Zubin Varla was a good fit as Dysart and Mr and Mrs Strang were indeed a little cartoonish, but the rest of the cast more than made up for them.

Despite not exactly enjoying it, I am glad to have seen this production and to notice that the younger audience members sounded enthusiastic and engaged at the interval. It's not a typical touring production for Guildford, but if it gets them interested in theatre, so much the better.

Ooooh, fantastic news! I love this play (it may sound weird but I do...) and sadly couldn't see it in Stratford. Delighted.