Discuss “Primal worship challenges intellectual norms”

Theater performances will often seek to provide audiences enlightenment or entertainment, but last week, the School of Drama directly confronted, challenged, and disturbed the audiences who entered the Helen Wayne Rauh Studio Theater.

The small space with audiences on all four sides of the stage was home to the production of Equus, a controversial play by Peter Shaffer. Laura Gross, a graduate student in the drama school’s directing program, directed the production. She presented this as her graduate thesis, the hallmark of her studies at Carnegie Mellon.

Equus originally premiered in 1973 in the National Theatre at the Old Vic in London. It received a 1975 Tony Award for Best Play, and in 1977 it became a feature-length movie starring...