Daniel romps naked on horse in potty new role

Daniel romps naked on horse in potty new role
by BAZ BAMIGBOYE, Daily Mail 11:12am 28th July 2006

New role: Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths

Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths, stars of the Harry Potter movies, are to appear together on the London stage in April, in a new production of Equus, one of the defining plays of the past half-century.

In one scene, Daniel will have to perform a sexual act while naked and mounted on a horse - but by all accounts, he’s not daunted by the prospect.

Teenage Radcliffe has become a household name the world over since winning the part of J. K. Rowling’s schoolboy wizard (he has played him in four films and is in the middle of shooting a fifth, The Order Of The Phoenix).

As I exclusively revealed in December, he will play Alan Strang, a troubled youth institutionalised for blinding six horses with a hoof spike.

This seemingly senseless act is at the heart of Peter Shaffer’s extraordinary 33-year-old drama, which explores the nature of passion, religion, equine worship and teenage instability.

It was a sensation when it first ran at the National, then on Broadway, and later in a movie starring Richard Burton and Peter Firth, who created the part of Strang on stage.

Griffiths, who has won a Tony for the Broadway run of the National Theatre’s celebrated production of The History Boys, is well acquainted with Radcliffe. In the Potter films he plays Harry’s awful uncle Vernon Dursley.

In Equus, he will play Martin Dysart, the psychiatrist who tries to discover why the groomsman maimed the horses.

Last night, Daniel wrote to me that he was ‘truly delighted to have been given the opportunity to work on this great play’, adding that he felt honoured ‘to be entrusted with the role’.

He recalled how he took part in a workshop of the play in an Old Vic studio last summer — with Shaffer and his formidable agent Patricia McNaughton also in attendance. This inspired a mix of ‘awe and terror at the prospect of playing such a complicated character’, Daniel said.

Awe obviously outweighed terror, though. ‘I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and one not to be missed.’

He acknowledged the amount of preparation he has to do, but says once out of ‘Potterland’, he will devote all his energies to the play. ‘I’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of me, but I am totally dedicated to this production and only hope I can do it justice.’

Gala

The play will rehearse for six weeks in London from January 3, with director Thea Sharrock taking charge, and then go straight into a series of previews from February 16. It will open to the critics with a gala first night on February 27.

A theatre is being negotiated and, as you might expect, all the major theatre owners — including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh — are vying for Equus.

Daniel will perform as Alan Strang for 16 weeks. Then it’s back to Hogwarts to prepare to film the sixth, penultimate, picture in the Harry Potter canon, The Half-Blood Prince.

The castings are a scorching theatrical coup for producers David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers, who have spent eight years preparing to bring the play back to London.

Shaffer had told the producers they could acquire the world rights — if they found the right boy to play Strang.

Their choice was Daniel, who made his stage debut as a celebrity guest in the comedy The Play What I Wrote, the Morecambe and Wise tribute that they produced. ‘Shaffer was delighted with Daniel,’ Pugh recalled yesterday. Griffiths was then approached.

Last week, while the actor was briefly back in England to do a few days’ work on The Order Of The Phoenix, he and Daniel discussed doing the play.

The Equus team also visited the pair on the Harry Potter set. ‘One of the things that made Richard so perfect was not only does he know this part, but he understands working with young people,’ Pugh said.

Director Ms Sharrock has been meeting with set, costume and lighting designers, but final designs will have to wait until a theatre has been decided on.

Initially, Kenneth Branagh had been planning to direct the play, but he withdrew for reasons of availability and differences of opinion about how the drama would be staged.

Pugh, Daniel’s parents, the actor and his agent have discussed the script. Pugh said Radcliffe did not shy away from the play’s coup de theatre. ‘There were no issues Daniel was worried about. He said he would play whatever’s in the script.’



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