SOURCE: "Shaffer's Variation on a Theme," in The Times, London, 27 July 1973, p. 15.

Equus debuted 26 July 1973 in a National Theatre production directed by John Dexter at London's Old Vic Theatre. In the following mixed review of the premiere, Wardle finds the play rather calculated and forced.

Peter Shaffer is a writer of formidable intelligence and traditional stage technique whose consistent purpose has been to invoke the primal dramatic forces which would blow his own equipment sky high. In style one can never predict what kind of piece he will write next but his theme remains constant. Whether he is opposing Christian and Aztec culture in The Royal Hunt of the Sun, or a philosopher and an anarchist poet in The Battle of Shrivings Shaffer is repeatedly mounting a tournament between Apollo and Dionysus under various coats of arms.

The argument of these plays is lacking in sinew; but the...