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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face=Georgia>Blank Canvas’ ‘Equus’ reins in pyrotechnics to reveal raw
emotion</FONT></SPAN></B></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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align=center><SPAN
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face=Georgia>Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: "></SPAN></P>
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align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
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face=Georgia>Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN style="COLOR: "></SPAN></P>
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align=center><SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in"><FONT
face=Georgia>Member, International Association of Theatre
Critics</FONT></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: "></SPAN></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ">Peter Shaffer’s 1975 Tony Award-winning “Equus” focuses on
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">a single,
inexplicable and horrific crime: the blinding of six horses with a metal spike
by a 17-year-old boy.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">The play largely unfolds
through a series of lengthy confessional monologues by psychiatrist Dr. Martin
Dysart (Russell Kunz) and – through flashbacks, dream sequences or under
hypnosis – by the </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ">boy, Alan Strang
(Antonio DeJesus), his distraught and devoutly religious mother (Claudia
Esposito), and his strict and socialist father (Andrew
Narten).</SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">Throughout the play, Dysart
is attempting to discover the deeply rooted reason for this violent act, find
the cause of the boy’s psychosexual fixation on horses, and rid him of his
emotional and mental anguish. While doing so, he </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ">reveals
his own personal and professional crises. He lives in a loveless marriage. He is
unable to experience the same passion expressed by his young patient. And he
fears that by stripping Alan Strang of his fantasies and immense pain, his cure
will be removing the very things that make the boy human.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT color=#232323>Blank Canvas’ production of “Equus” is a good
one.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Should a more effective and
engaged Dysart show up in subsequent performances, this will be a great
one.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#232323 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><FONT face=Georgia><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
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more of this article, go to </SPAN></I><I
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style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in"><FONT
color=#0563c1>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/</FONT></SPAN></I><I
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