Peter Shaffer comedies. "The Royal Hunt of the Sun" (1964) presents the tragic conquest of Peru by the Spanish, while "Black Comedy" (1965) takes a humorous look at the antics of a group of characters feeling their way around a pitch black room — although the stage is actually flooded with light. "Equus" (1973) won Shaffer the 1975 Tony Award for Best Play as well as the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. A journey into the mind of a seventeen-year-old stable-boy who had plunged a spike into the eyes of six horses, "Equus" ran for over 1,000 performances on Broadway. It
Peter Shaffer was revived by Massachusetts' Berkshire Theatre Festival in the summers of 2005 and 2007, by director Thea Sharrock at London's Gielgud Theatre in February 2007, and on Broadway (in the Sharrock staging) in September 2008. The latter production, which ran in New York until February 2009, required the stableboy to appear naked; its star, Daniel Radcliffe, was still associated with the "Harry Potter" films intended for general audiences, and this led to mild controversy. Shaffer followed this success with "Amadeus" (1979) which won the Evening Standard Drama Award and the Theatre Critics' Award for the London production. This tells the