@article{ART003197343},
author={Lee, Soohyun},
title={The Audience in Peter Shaffer’s Equus: From Surveillance to Witnessing},
journal={Journal of Modern English Drama},
issn={1226-3397},
year={2025},
volume={38},
number={1},
pages={143-168}
TY - JOUR
AU - Lee, Soohyun
TI - The Audience in Peter Shaffer’s Equus: From Surveillance to Witnessing
JO - Journal of Modern English Drama
PY - 2025
VL - 38
IS - 1
PB - 한국현대영미드라마학회
SP - 143
EP - 168
SN - 1226-3397
AB - This paper examines Peter Shaffer’s Equus (1973) as a dramatization of psychiatric treatment, portraying it as a mechanism of surveillance and control that reveals psychiatry as an ideological apparatus enforcing conformity. The stage design, influenced by modern anatomical theatres, initially positions the audience as overseers of psychiatric scrutiny, thereby reinforcing their alignment with institutional authority. Dysart’s growing disillusionment, however, fractures this dynamic and forces spectators to acknowledge their complicity in the perpetuation of psychiatric power. Shaffer’s dramaturgical techniques―such as spatial configuration, direct address and onstage audience placement―transform the act of spectatorship into an ethical engagement and urge viewers to critically witness the ideological mechanisms that underpin psychiatric intervention. Dysart’s monologues, marked by growing doubt, create a dual witnessing structure: the main audience observe Dysart’s agonies while simultaneously witnessing the responses of the onstage audience. This interaction may activate mirror neurons in the main audience, blurring the distinctions between the observer and observed, and facilitating a transition from a clinical perspective of surveillance to an empathetic stance of testimony. Equus intricately embeds the audience within a theatrical framework of observation that interrogates conventional perceptions of mental health and necessitates a critical assessment of psychiatric authority. The play ultimately repositions the audience from passive observation to active confrontation with structures that define and sustain psychiatric power.
KW - Equus; Peter Shaffer; gaze; psychiatric authority; surveillance;audience;witnessing
DO -
UR -
ER -
Lee, Soohyun. (2025). The Audience in Peter Shaffer’s Equus: From Surveillance to Witnessing. Journal of Modern English Drama, 38(1), 143-168.
Lee, Soohyun. 2025, "The Audience in Peter Shaffer’s Equus: From Surveillance to Witnessing", Journal of Modern English Drama, vol.38, no.1 pp.143-168.
Lee, Soohyun "The Audience in Peter Shaffer’s Equus: From Surveillance to Witnessing" Journal of Modern English Drama 38.1 pp.143-168 (2025) : 143.
Lee, Soohyun. The Audience in Peter Shaffer’s Equus: From Surveillance to Witnessing. 2025; 38(1), 143-168.
Lee, Soohyun. "The Audience in Peter Shaffer’s Equus: From Surveillance to Witnessing" Journal of Modern English Drama 38, no.1 (2025) : 143-168.
Lee, Soohyun. The Audience in Peter Shaffer’s Equus: From Surveillance to Witnessing. Journal of Modern English Drama, 38(1), 143-168.
Lee, Soohyun. The Audience in Peter Shaffer’s Equus: From Surveillance to Witnessing. Journal of Modern English Drama. 2025; 38(1) 143-168.
Lee, Soohyun. The Audience in Peter Shaffer’s Equus: From Surveillance to Witnessing. 2025; 38(1), 143-168.
Lee, Soohyun. "The Audience in Peter Shaffer’s Equus: From Surveillance to Witnessing" Journal of Modern English Drama 38, no.1 (2025) : 143-168.
