British Theatre Guide Blog

I cannot resist a few observations about Thea Sharrock’s excellent revival of Equus at the Gielgud.

What everybody should be talking about is a marvellous performance from Richard Griffiths who could well repeat his success in The History Boys, but only if everybody can stop competing over the measurements of the parts that no one thought that Harry Potter actually had.

For weeks now, the tabloids have been obsessed about the fact that the seventeen-year-old Daniel Radcliffe was to appear naked on stage. The broadsheets soon weighed in, even if the tone was a little different.

It seems as if most of the audience are sitting waiting for young Daniel to get his keks off and playwright and director have a little fun at their expense when he claims that he is about to undress before the interval but then stops halfway.

We eventually get there as simultaneously, the young man and Joanna Christie, playing his girlfriend, strip. Last night though, the communal intake of breath was accompanied by a comic moment when the overweight lady behind me unwittingly had her moment of glory.

It seems likely that this was her first ever visit to a theatre even though she was at best in her thirties, since she and her husband or partner offered a running commentary throughout.

When the big revelation was upon us, she uttered in a voice that must have carried several rows “I couldn’t do that” and it was all I could do to resist turning round and commenting on behalf of the audience “Well, that’s a relief to us all”.

Strangely, the most worrying aspect of the evening was seeing our Harry Potter role model smoking. Once his teeny fan club catch on, there is every risk that they will wish to emulate their hero and he may undo all of the good that taxation and photos of blackened lungs have achieved in recent years.

I emphasise that this is not a criticism of the principle of smoking on stage. Anybody who was in Edinburgh last year watching Mel Smith toying with an unlit cigar as he played Churchill will realise that a ban on stage smoking is just plain silly. It is unlikely to save lives and, realistically, checking out actors and backstage crew for flu and pneumonia would probably have at least as beneficial an effect.

Anyway, I strongly recommend that the world puts Daniel’s little foibles back under cover and concentrates on what turned out to be a really good evening’s entertainment.