A Wrenching Play In Theater's Twilight

Like an old actor drawn back to the spotlight for a few more rounds of applause, the decaying Clark Street Playhouse continues to avoid the long-planned moment when the wrecker's ball will bring down the curtain . . . and everything else.

The old warehouse-turned-blackbox theater at the edge of Crystal City is a condemned structure that is slated to be torn down as part of the North Tract development, but the Washington Shakespeare Company says the space will provide it a home for at least another season-and-a-half. So the company has opened its 17th season where we're used to seeing it, starting off with a pleasing but not perfect production of "Equus."

This play is challenging, both for actors and audience, as it churns a psychological investigation of a teenager's senseless act of violence into an unnerving examination that envelops the doctor and his patient. Peter Shaffer's tale premiered in London in 1973; it ran for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway and won the 1975 Tony Award. It is somewhat dated but remains vibrant at its core. The questions Shaffer posed are still relevant, even if the nudity and brief violence no longer shock and the dark themes and stylized settings no longer seem cutting-edge.

Psychiatrist Martin Dysart (Christopher Henley) delves into the fevered fantasies that compelled 17-year-old Alan Strang (Jay Hardee) to worship and then savagely blind horses under his care in an English stable. As the doctor closes in on Alan's unique blend of erotic and religious obsessions, the less certain he becomes about his own drives and logic. The boy's seemingly irrational actions lead him to distrust his professional dogma, the concept of normality losing clarity in his mind. Director Lee Mikeska Gardner has crafted an intense version of Shaffer's work that soars when it smudges the lines between psychosis and passion, exploring the cost of stripping the boy's fantasies away and possibly denying him something more valuable than normality. Dysart comes to value Alan's passion, an ardor that is lacking in his own life, even as it causes the boy much pain.

But the play falters during Shaffer's extended, often redundant, and frequently flat sequences in which the doctor examines the central issues long after the points have been made. Gardner does her best to inject energy and has Henley portray Dysart as a fidgety, nervous man to suggest that he's having his own illicit erotic adventures, but those scenes dilute rather than enhance the play's strengths. Hardee's Alan Strang is volatile and unpredictable, whether he is slowly revealing the origins of his ritualized worship and erotic focus on horses or is dealing with his employer or parents or is finding himself unable to consummate an affair with a girl. Hardee manages to be remarkably strange and yet quite understandable in the madness he portrays. Supporting roles are played with precise focus, particularly by Bruce Alan Rauscher as Alan's emotionally pinched father and Cam Magee as his distraught but clear-headed mother. The ensemble also represents horses by employing subtle head and foot movements and light sounds that are strikingly evocative.

Three horse-head masks sculpted from wire hang over the setting and are captured in harsh spotlights that pierce the constantly swirling haze. One of the heads occasionally descends and is worn by actor Joe Tippett, giving form to Alan's worshipful fantasies. A drum-like platform and an office chair are the only props below, as the action takes place in memory, fantasy and in the matching of wits and wills between patient and doctor.

"Equus," performed by Washington Shakespeare Company, concludes this weekend at the Clark Street Playhouse, 601 S. Clark St., Arlington. Showtime is 8 p.m. tonight, Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m.Sunday. For tickets, call 800-494-8497 or visithttp://www.boxofficetickets.com/wsc. For more information, visithttp://www.washingtonshakespeare.org.