When a deranged boy, Alan Strang, blinds six horses with a metal spike he is sentenced to psychiatric treatment. Dr. Dysart is the man given the task of uncovering what happened the night Strang committed his crime, but in doing so will open up his own wounds. For Dysart struggles to define sanity, and justify his marriage, his career, and his life of normality; ultimately he must ask himself: is it patient or psychiatrist whose life is being laid bare? The most shocking play of its day, ''Equus'' uses an act of violence to explore faith, insanity and how the materialism of modern life can destroy humanity's capacity for pain and passion.