Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe strips for Equus, a controversial Peter Shaffer play showing at London's Gielgud Theater from next month.
Updated at 1.30 pm
LONDON: Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe strips for Equus, a controversial Peter Shaffer play showing at London's Gielgud Theater from February 27.
A publicity photo shows a topless and buffed Daniel Radcliffe being hugged by a naked woman. Another shows him leaning against bales of hay as he stares up at the topless woman. A third, of his shirtless, has him posing in front of a white horse.
The pictures have been released ahead of the opening of Equus.
Radcliffe, 17, plays a troubled stablehand who one night blinds six horses with a hoofpick.
He features in nude scenes with co-star Joanne Christie.
The publicity shots were taken between filming of the fifth and sixth Harry Potter movies.
Play producer David Pugh told the Daily Mail Radcliffe had been rehearsing the nude scenes with Christie for more than a week and had overcome initial shyness.
Radcliffe will pay Alan Strang, a psychologically disturbed youth who is interviewed by a psychiatrist after he blinds six horses with a metal spike.
The role requires the actor to simulate sexual pleasure while riding naked on his horse. It is a departure for Radcliffe, whose career has been dominated by his part as JK Rowling’s teenage wizard.
Shaffer’s work caused a sensation when it was staged at the National Theatre in 1973. It transferred to Broadway, where it starred Anthony Hopkins, and ran for 1,200 performances, making it one of the most successful plays in New York history. It was made into a Hollywood film starring Richard Burton in 1977, The Times (London) reported.
The playwright, whose works include Amadeus and The Royal Hunt of the Sun, based the story on a real-life incident in which a boy inexplicably maimed six horses, the newspaper said.
It encompasses sexual awakening, Greek mythology and religion. The psychiatrist attempts to explain the boy’s actions, but must confront his own demons in the process.
The play was the subject of controversy recently after John Owen, a drama teacher at Ysdgol Gyfun Rhydfelen in Pontypridd, was accused of sexual abuse after staging it as a school play. He committed suicide the day before he was due to appear in court, the Times said.
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