Equus (play) Tom Hulce replaced Firth during the Broadway run. The Broadway production ran for 1,209 performances. Marian Seldes appeared in every single performance of the Broadway run, first in the role of Hesther and then as Dora. Shaffer also adapted his play for a 1977 film of the same name. Numerous other issues inform the narrative. Most important are religious and ritual sacrifice themes, and the manner in which character Alan Strang constructs a personal theology involving the horses and the supreme godhead, "Equus". Alan sees the horses as representative of God and confuses his adoration of his "God" with sexual
Peter Shaffer Peter Shaffer Sir Peter Levin Shaffer, CBE (; 15 May 1926 – 6 June 2016), was an English playwright and screenwriter. He wrote numerous award-winning plays, of which several were adapted into films. Shaffer was born to a Jewish family in Liverpool, the son of Reka (née Fredman) and Jack Shaffer. He was the identical twin brother of fellow playwright Anthony Shaffer. He was educated at the Hall School, Hampstead, a boys' prep school and St Paul's School, London, an independent school for boys, and subsequently he gained a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, to study history. Shaffer was a