Equus

"Passion, you see, can be destroyed by a doctor. It cannot be created."

—Martin Dysart

A play by Peter Shaffer that opened in 1973, Equus became a film in 1977 also written by Shaffer. In the play and film, a psychiatrist, Martin Dysart is called to investigate the case of a stable boy named Alan Strang. Alan, out of a religious and sexual fascination with horses, savagely blinded six horses with a metal spike. As he examines the boy, and his fascination, Dysart starts to have doubts about whether he can really help him, or whether turning people to a "normal" way of thinking is always the right thing to do.

Tropes used in Equus include:

But You Screw One Goat!: Alan can't distinguish between affection for horses and sexual attraction.
Dawson Casting: Frequently done with regards to 17-year-old Alan for understandable reasons. Peter Firth, the originator of the role, was twenty-four years old when the film version starring him was released. Averted by the 2007 West End revival (you know, the one that got the Moral Guardians up in arms).
Dysfunctional Family: The Strangs. Frank and Dora are of wildly differing personalities and perspectives, and their strongly conflicting views of how to treat their son only contribute to his psychosis.
Every One Remembers the Stripper: Deep themes phooey: some folks are only interested in the nudity.
- Particularly Daniel Radcliffe; the fact that he was nude on stage is the only reason a lot of people have ever heard of this play.
Eye Scream: The blinding of the horses.
Full-Frontal Assault: Alan's attack on the horses is done in the nude.
Male Frontal Nudity: The script calls for the actor playing Alan to appear naked on stage. Predictably, the production starring Daniel Radcliffe spawned countless jokes about Harry Potter showing his "wand."
- Actually, the script only calls for the actor playing Alan to mime stripping, never actually requiring any nudity. Radcliffe took it upon himself to nude it up.
Minimalism: The original play features, among other aspects, only one setting and actors or dancers in lieu of horses; very much averted in the film version, naturally.
Shout-Out: There's a reference to "standing in the darkness, stabbing at heads" which seems to refer to the play Agamemnon by Aeschylus.
Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The play was inspired by a headline of an actual horse blinding; Peter Shaffer then devised the story of his play from the ground up.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Or rather, the horses--we're not told their fate after Alan blinds them, although one can guess.
- Not necessarily, most barns have some blind or half-blind horse that get along quite fine and can even be ridden. Remember that a horse's primary senses are hearing and smell.
  - Interesting, since a horse's eyes are the largest of any land mammal.