The scene set evokes a temple or rather the very heart of a temple. And it is indeed, as the scene transforms itself along the play from Dr. Dysart’s office into the stable and  – for a short time – into the cinema place, these three places being in fact temples to the psychiatrist, Alan and his father. The play starts with Dr. Dysart’s thoughts and brief introduction into the Alan’s case. Richard Griffiths, I must say, does a marvelous job. You make no connection whatsoever with any other characters that you might have seen him playing. He’s just the psychiatrist who takes an awakening journey from the moment that he accepts to treat Alan Strang. And while Richard Burton’s performance in the same part has been strong and vibrant (but when has Burton not been strong and vibrant?), Richard Griffiths gives the character a new personality, a lot more on the philosophical side. Dr. Dysart is not torn, but distressed at the realization that he let passion slip away from his life and, most of all, that he resigned to it. He starts questioning himself, his life, his almost-dead marriage and his whole purpose as he perceives the intensity of Alan’s feelings.

And that intensity is beautifully conveyed by Daniel Radcliffe’s act. I must confess that I had expected to be reminded of the Harry Potter part at least at times during the play. To my surprise it never happened. I haven’t thought of Alan as the character who is played by the guy who played the famous wizard, but only Alan, an anguished teenager who sees the values of his world turn to dust and that very world turned upside down, mostly like Dickens’ Pip. Many have interpreted the stable blinding scene as a fall from Paradise. In some regards, I do agree. However, in my opinion, Alan doesn’t fall from the biblical paradise, but from that of childhood and innocence. He is a Peter Pan that has been forced to leave his Neverland by the revelation that his father was, in fact, “just a poor old sod on his own”, doing his own secret “thing” just like Alan did and that his mother was a prude. In the most talked about naked scene in the play Alan bares himself completely, his soul as well as his body. He shares his revelations and pain with Dr. Dysart, who, in his turn fears the future lack of pain or passion in Alan’s life once he has been “healed”, once this false society and its rigors tamed him. I cannot stress enough how impressed I was with Radcliffe’s performance. Although he is a very young actor and perhaps(and hopefully) oh-so-blissfully-unaware yet of the many types of anguish that life can provide, the part fits him and his youth like a glove. I believe that if he managed to keep at least part of the audience entrapped inside the universe of the play for the whole two acts as I was, then he has already achieved a lot. The intensity that he gives to the character proves by all means that he has so much more to give on stage than just playing the part of a teenage wizard and I expect we’ll hear and see more great performances from him in the years to come.

I left the theater with the distinct feeling that I can and I should do everything that I long to do. It’s not very often that one encounters such inspired and inspirational performances. And as I headed outside I saw the after-theater show: the fans waiting at around 15 degrees Fahrenheit for an autograph, a picture or just a glimpse of their idol. And perhaps for many it is hard to understand, even for me it is most of the time – for I’d rather keep my food for the mind unaltered by the mundane mere minutes after the show. Yet, in a way it makes sense as perhaps, for them, that is their cherished stable.