After bursting onto the Music City theater scene in the summer of 2012 with the hard-hitting and shocking Mysterious Skin, KB Productions followed up with last summer’s sold-out run of Del Shores’ Southern Baptist Sissies. The theatre company continues its string of edgy, controversial and acclaimed presentations this summer with the multiple Tony award winning Equus. Peter Shaffer’s Equus opens at the Darkhorse Theatre in Nashville on August 15.
Shaffer was inspired to write Equus when he heard of a crime involving a 17-year-old who had blinded several horses in a small town near London. Without knowing any of the details of the crime, he set out to construct a fictional account of what might have caused the incident
Dr. Martin Dysart, a psychiatrist, is confronted with Alan Strang, a boy who has blinded six horses in a violent fit of passion. This very passion is as foreign to Dysart as the act itself. To the boy's parents it is a hideous mystery; Alan has always adored horses. To Dysart it is a psychological puzzle that leads both doctor and patient to a complex and disturbingly dramatic confrontation.
This international success reached new acclaim in London and on Broadway when revived in 2008. Of Equus, The Sunday Times said, “…without doubt one of the greatest English post-war plays. As a work of art, it is magnificent. Rarely does contemporary drama probe so deep - an electrifying evening of theatre.”
Directed by Clay Hillwig, the impressive cast features Michael Roark, Daniel DeVault, Anthony Just, Trish Puryear Crist, Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva, Hilary Morris, Andrew Strong, Jill Suzanne Braddock-Watson and Matthew Robert C Laird. KB Productions is headed by producer Donald Powell and actor/director L.T. Kirk. KB was initially founded as Kirk-Burgess Productions by L.T. Kirk, Justin Burgess, and Donald Powell.
Equus opens August 15, with continuing performances August 16 & 17 and August 21, 22 & 23. All shows begin at 7:30 pm, except Sunday, August 17, which begins at 5 pm. The play will be presented at the Darkhorse Theater, 4610 Charlotte Ave., Nashville, TN 37209.
Tickets may be purchased at the KB Productions website or at Eventbrite.
