Toby Stephens and Noah Valentine earn unanimous praise from the critics in Lindsay Posner’s intense and intimate revival of Peter Shaffer’s landmark 1973 drama Equus. The critics are united on the power of the cast’s performances even as they differ on how well the play’s psychological preoccupations have aged.
How do you add something new to the conversation for a modern icon? That’s the question facing any director who takes on a well-known play, and certainly the question that was facing Lindsay Posner when he took up the mantle of directing Equus.
Yet Posner has no problem making his mark: based on the critics’ reactions, this production of Equus strips back the elaborate stagecraft that has traditionally defined the play, trading ornate horse masks and large-scale spectacle for the close-quarters intensity of the Menier’s intimate thrust stage. The result, according to critics, is a revival that burns with focus and psychological precision.
Toby Stephens (Black Sails) plays psychiatrist Martin Dysart opposite Noah Valentine’s (Waterloo Road, Inside No.9) Alan Strang, the disturbed teenager who has blinded six horses, and whose reasons for doing so form the engine of Shaffer’s play. Amanda Abbington (Sherlock) completes the principal company as Hesther.
The consensus is an outstanding, gripping piece of storytelling, with two exceptional central performances at its heart.
The verdict: A searingly intimate revival anchored by two exceptional performances, and essential viewing for anyone who has ever wondered what theatre can do at its most extreme.
Critic’s Comparison
Peter Shaffer’s Equus has always demanded a particular kind of courage from its collaborators: a willingness to commit fully to its most extreme psychological and physical territory without flinching or winking at the audience.
It’s a difficult balance, but judging by the critics’ reactions Lindsay Posner’s production meets that demand with impressive authority. Forgoing the metal horse heads that have become a visual shorthand for the play, Posner and movement director James Cousins replace elaborate equine pageantry with six bare-chested dancers, bodies smeared with black, who coil and uncoil at the back of the stage like a wordless chorus. Together, they’re human enough to be disturbing, inhuman enough to be genuinely frightening.
At the centre of it all, the critics hail Toby Stephens’ subtle yet brilliant performance as Dysart, the rumpled psychiatrist whose professional certainties begin to dissolve the deeper he goes into Alan’s extraordinary inner life.
Against him, Noah Valentine is described as a revelation: taut, boyishly vulnerable and possessed of what Time Out describes as “an elemental otherness” that makes Alan’s passion for the horses feel both terrifying and strangely pure.
| Publication | Rating | The Key Takeaway |
| Time Out | ★★★★ | Stephens is excellent and Valentine wonderful in a searingly intimate production that magnifies Shaffer’s meaning. |
| What’s On Stage | ★★★★ | An exceptional, gripping revival, and outstanding performances allow Equus to cast its spell once more. |
| The Guardian | ★★★★ | Precise and intense, flying highest in its most extreme moments, Valentine convinces completely. |
| The Independent | ★★★★ | Striking and intimate staging with brilliant movement direction and a powerfully queer reading of the text |
The reviews: what they loved about Equus
- Toby Stephens and Noah Valentine. All critics singled out the central performances as the production’s beating heart. Time Out’s Andrez Lukowski called Stephens “excellent” and Valentine “wonderful,” with the latter possessing “an elemental otherness that’s often menacing in the extreme.” WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton praised Stephens for making Dysart’s doubt “a force for empathy rather than self-pity,” and described Valentine’s as “an exceptional performance, both terrified and terrifying.” The Guardian’s Kate Wyver noted that Valentine “contains both the maturity of intense devotion and the foolish imaginings of a lonely child.”
- James Cousins’ movement direction. The decision to replace traditional horse masks with six bare-chested dancers drew consistent admiration. WhatsOnStage called the choreography “magnificent,” describing bodies that “uncoil into the shapes of the animals” with an “uncanny and communicative suggestion of movement.” Time Out praised Cousins’ work as “superbly choreographed,” finding the horses “unnerving, sinuous presences with odd, inhuman movements.” The Independent went further, describing the climactic sequences as having “the intense bodily energy of an ecstatic rave in a damp field”.
- The intimacy of the Menier staging. Time Out argued that Posner “plays a blinder by using the Menier’s core strength of intimacy,” noting that the close quarters make the horses’ “unnerving dead eyes” visible in a way that larger productions cannot achieve. The Guardian observed that with “no bad seat in the house,” the production wraps the audience inside Alan’s world rather than asking them to observe it from a distance.
- The production’s queer reading. The Independent particularly praised Posner for bringing the play’s homoerotic undercurrents fully to the surface, highlighting tender scenes between Valentine and Ed Mitchell’s Nugget that suggest “two boys, rubbing heads, and finding secret comfort in each other’s company.” The Guardian noted how “homoerotic desire grows and the muscular allure of a stallion becomes irresistible” as the production develops.
The reviews: what fell flat for Equus
- The play’s period preoccupations. Time Out was the most candid about the degree to which Shaffer’s psychological framework has dated, noting that the play’s views on psychiatry are “at the very least, simplistic, speaking of an era where the concept was novel.” The Independent found something “mildly uncomfortable — silly even” about Dysart’s obsessive excavation of Alan’s sexuality, though it noted that Posner’s production “wears these themes lightly.”
- The gap between ambition and delivery in the quieter scenes. The Guardian, while broadly admiring, felt the production was most alive in its most extreme moments, implying that some of the gentler dramatic passages felt less fully realised than the visceral set pieces. It described the production as “solid” rather than exceptional outside those peak sequences.
The back story
Peter Shaffer wrote Equus after learning the bare outlines of a real-life crime: a teenager had blinded several horses at a stable. Having never discovered the reasons behind the act, Shaffer set about imagining them… and the result was one of the most discussed and debated plays of the twentieth century.
Equus premiered at the National Theatre in 1973, transferred to Broadway and was subsequently adapted into a film starring Richard Burton. A 2007 revival became a cultural flashpoint when Daniel Radcliffe, then at the height of his Harry Potter fame, took on the role of Alan and brought the play to a generation of new audiences.
At its heart the play asks a question that has no comfortable answer: if a person’s obsessions are the source of both their suffering and their most transcendent experiences, what is actually gained by taking them away?
- Martin Dysart: Toby Stephens (Black Sails, Downton Abbey)
- Alan Strang: Noah Valentine (Black Doves)
- Hesther: Amanda Abbington (Sherlock, Mr Selfridge)
- Dora Strang: Emma Cunniffe (Breathtaking, The Crown)
- Frank Strang: Colin Mace
- Jill: Bella Aubin
- Nugget: Ed Mitchell
The creative team includes director Lindsay Posner, movement director James Cousins, set designer Paul Farnsworth and lighting designer Paul Pyant.
Where to see Equus
- Venue: Menier Chocolate Factory, 53 Southwark Street, London SE1 1RU
- Dates: until 4 July 2026
- Book tickets to Equus at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London
What are the critics saying about Equus?
"Old-school director Lindsay Postner plays a blinder by using the Menier’s core strength of intimacy."
“Superbly choreographed by James Cousins, their [the horses] only adornment is tight black trousers and smears of body paint, but they are unnerving, sinuous presences with odd, inhuman movements.
"Toby Stephens is superb in this powerfully intimate revival of Peter Shaffer's unsettling masterpiece."
"Noah Valentine is a wonderful Alan, boyishly vulnerable but with an elemental otherness that's often menacing in the extreme but is also pure, free, his own."
"The intimacy of Posner's production magnifies all that, focussing Shaffer's meaning and burning away pedantic quibbles."
"Lindsay Posner’s intense and intelligent production for the Menier is newly thoughtful and revealing."
“Paul Pyant lights both to extraordinary effect, highlighting boy and horse, casting warm spotlights on limbs, emphasising beauty, strength and terror in turn.”
"Stephens, almost unrecognisable behind thick-framed glasses and bushy beard, makes Dysart's doubt a force for empathy rather than self-pity."
"It is an exceptional performance, both terrified and terrifying, a picture of a boy in pain and of one who has touched the transcendent."
"Together, they allow Equus once again to cast its spell as an outstanding and gripping piece of storytelling, a great leap of theatrical imagination."
"Performed on a thrust stage, with no bad seat in the house, Posner’s production is as solid as its satisfyingly plotted script, but there is no doubt the show flies highest in its most intense moments of beastliness."
"Valentine... convinces. His performance contains both the maturity of intense devotion and the foolish imaginings of a lonely child looking for something to believe in."
“There's always been a latent homoeroticism to Shaffer's play but Posner drags this story's queer themes right out to the surface.”
"Posner's striking staging feels as intimate as trespassing into a teenager's bedroom."
" Instead of the usual equine pageantry, the play's climatic scenes have the intense bodily energy of an ecstatic rave in a damp field. James Cousins' brilliant movement direction is as vivid as a 4am hallucination, making six mud-smeared bodies tumble into one charging horse then fall apart, exhausted "
"Excellent revival"
"Powerful and precise revival of Peter Shaffer’s equine psychodrama"
"The chance to see a huge star strip naked is certainly a recipe for bums on seats. Fortunately, this has largely been avoided and relative newcomer Noah Valentine is a revelation as Alan."
"Toby Stephens is riveting as Martin Dysart"
"A teenage boy’s perverted obsession with horses once again proves thrilling to watch"
"This raw, stripped-back revival of Equus at the Menier Chocolate Factory is driven by a fierce, breakout turn from Noah Valentine"
"It’s wonderful to see an actor as young and vulnerable as Valentine capitalise on his freshness while commanding the stage."
"A fine revival of a deeply odd but significant play"
"A forceful revival of Peter Shaffer’s strange play at the Menier Chocolate Factory with a standout lead performance"
"Lindsay Posner’s production, which marks Shaffer’s centenary, showcases a performance of glittering vulnerability from emerging talent Noah Valentine as the boy, Alan Strang, while Toby Stephens flirts with hysteria as the shrink, Martin Dysart."
"A fine revival of a deeply odd but significant play. The neighs still have it, it seems."
"Toby Stephens shines in an intense and balletic revival"
"Lindsay Posner’s staging of Peter Shaffer’s drama at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London is thrillingly accomplished — but the play’s problems remain"
"... Lindsay Posner’s revival of Equus at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London has to be one of the most intense evenings in town."
"Posner draws exceptional performances from his cast. Toby Stephens is utterly convincing as Martin Dysart"
"Put the dubious ideas about psychiatry to one side, however, and the spectacle, played out on Paul Farnsworth’s grey, minimalist set, with the supporting players seated in the front row, still possesses raw pagan energy."
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