Much of the publicity build-up for ?Equus,? a re-staging by Repertory Philippines 37 years after it first mounted this Tony award-winning play by Peter Shaffer, centered around the character of Alan Strang, the troubled teenager who committed a horrible crime that is the center of the dramatic conflict.

Maybe this is because whoever plays the young Strang has to strip naked and remain so for about 10 minutes onstage. Indeed, interest in this rather dark and complex drama has been re-kindled because of a revival in London and Broadway where Daniel Radcliffe, otherwise known to the world as ?Harry Potter,? appears. There was some shock expressed at Radcliffe?s choice of an acting vehicle so soon after he shot to fame as the boy wizard. And this was, again, mainly because he would appear naked onstage and thus destroy completely any lingering image of him as an innocent muggle boy introduced to the world of wizardry. Maybe that was the entire point.

Anyway, the nude scene, while highly anticipated, is not as sensational or ?sensitive? as the build-up indicates. Maybe the subdued lighting did much to soften the impact, no pun intended. But I think it was mostly because by this time the audience has been swept up in the moment, and the nudity has been entirely woven into the story-telling. To be embarrassed, shocked or titillated by the sight of the naked bodies of young people would have been crass or stupid.

But while publicists sought to focus the spotlight on the character of Alan Strang, or on the psychiatrist Martin Dysart who is truly the main character in ?Equus,? the most compelling, mystifying ?characters? for me were the horses.

Yes, the horses. The six horses, the ones which were blinded by Strang in a fit of madness, are portrayed by bare-chested men wearing jeans and wire accoutrements that give them the magnificent heads of equines and hoofs that raise them above the normal human height.

They have no lines (save for the character of ?Nugget? who also portrays a young horseman) and do little other than emerge from their stalls and fill the stage with their strangely disturbing presence.

By their bulk and magnificent form alone, one comes to understand Strang?s awe and worship of them, for they are truly formidable, mysterious creatures. Their forms filled my imagination long after we left the premises of Onstage at Greenbelt 1. I completely understood the obsession that gripped the young Alan Strang.

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?EQUUS? has been billed as a mystery, mainly because Dysart the psychiatrist must ferret out the motivation behind Strang?s inexplicable act. But soon after the story unravels itself. It may have baffled audiences in 1975, but 35 years after, we know enough pop psychology to immediately zero in on what drove Strang to his deed.

As the lights came on in the theater, I quipped to my companions: ?That?s why we need sex education.?

Indeed, the consequences of mixing religion, mysticism, repression and conservatism are there to behold in Alan Strang?s sullen, befuddled, dreamy and confused state. What Shaffer was more concerned about, though, was the interaction between Dysart and his young patient. The drama is centered more on how the emergence of Strang?s story and Dysart?s realization of what he must do to take him out of the pain and trauma of this episode impacts on the psychiatrist himself. For even as he knows it is his task to bring Strang back to ?normality,? Dysart realizes, too, that he will be depriving the young man of what he calls ?worship,? everything that makes him unique, compelling and special.

As Dysart, Miguel Faustmann, an ?old reliable? among Rep?s ever-shifting troupe, lends the psychiatrist the necessary gravitas but also an endearing humanity. I couldn?t help marveling at his memory, given the many lengthy monologues (a failing of the drama, I felt) he had to deliver.

The night we watched, Marco Manalac, whose first stage role this is, portrayed Alan Strang. I thought he brought an endearing vulnerability to his performance, all adolescent gawkiness and resentment. His scenes with Pheona Baranda, as Jill Mason his ?love? interest, were touching, mainly because they displayed the young man?s awkwardness and unfamiliarity with relating with a person of the opposite sex.

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I MUST congratulate Audie Gemora for suggesting ?Equus? for this Rep season, and then bravely taking on Baby Barredo?s challenge (worded more as an order) to direct the play. As Gemora tells in his notes, he had always considered musical theater his expertise, but he decided to accept the assignment because he missed directing for Rep, since his last project was in 1982.

?Also, taking on the directorial reins of this production has an undisclosed significance for me,? Gemora says. Turns out that he almost played the role of Alan Strang in 1980 when he was 20 years old for the CCP. But that production was aborted and it seems Gemora was fated instead to mount ?Equus? as the director.

He does well, bathing the production in an interplay of light and dark, and sometimes surrounding the production with uncanny, hair-raising sound effects. They add dimensions of horror, fear and amazement to the drama. I especially liked the way the horses were lit, at times hidden in shadows, their metal heads sometimes gleaming, their hoofs beating an ominous staccato.

In all, ?Equus? is that exquisite blend of the young and old in Philippine theater, the veterans providing the necessary ballast to the daring and spirit of the young performers. Once again, I am convinced how ?deep? a bench of talents the Philippines enjoys in the field of entertainment and theater. ?Equus? is an excellent showcase.