Photo and design by Barton Bund

“I remember going to make a phone call to offer a role to an actor that had auditioned for the show, but that was unfamiliar with the script,” said director Sarah Lucas in an e-mail interview. “I kept thinking, ‘How on earth do I ask someone to play a horse named Nugget and make it sound like good thing?’”

Indeed, actors who tackle “Equus” have to be willing to go to some dark, unconventional places, since the Tony Award-winning play works to unravel — by way of a psychiatrist’s questions — why a 17-year-old boy who harbors a religious and sexual fascination with horses would then blind six of them one night in a small town outside London. (The show is for mature audiences.)

Given the unusual nature of “Equus”’ story — which Shaffer built entirely from his imagination after hearing a strange news item about a young man blinding six horses — Lucas believes that getting the audience to connect to the characters is one of the play’s biggest challenges.

“Not many people will be able to look at the actions of the play's primary characters and say, ‘I remember doing that type of thing when I was an adolescent,’” said Lucas. “However, it is necessary that on some level they are able to understand why someone may be able to do the terrible things that these characters do.”

Lucas, who’s previously worked as the Blackbird’s resident stage manager, is making her directing debut with “Equus,” and she hadn’t previously seen it on a stage before taking it on.

“I had heard of the show, but it wasn't until (Blackbird founder Bart Bund) and I were in knee-deep in the process of choosing a script that I actually picked up a copy and read it cover to cover,” said Lucas. “I've always been attracted to scripts that tend be a little on the dark side, that push the envelope, and that have a rich, compelling text. I read ‘Equus’ in one spectacular sitting and immediately decided that it was a story that I wanted to tell.”

The Blackbird’s highly intimate performance space at the SH\aut\ Cabaret and Gallery would seem to lend itself perfectly to “Equus,” in the sense that the play unfolds as an intense, deeply personal, psychological mystery. But then, there are also some large equines to contend with.

“For every benefit that the venue offers, there is an obstacle to match it,” said Lucas. “ … Trying to maneuver a small herd of 'horses' around a tight space does occasionally become problematic, as one might imagine. As a result, we have gotten creative with some of the staging. And ultimately, I think the challenges have, in some strange way, benefited the production.”

A recent 2007 London production of “Equus” garnered a great deal of attention, largely because it featured “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe in the role of the horse-blinding boy — a role that required on-stage nudity. (The production, which also starred Richard Griffiths as the psychiatrist, was transferred to Broadway in 2008 and earned Radcliffe a Drama Desk Award nomination.)

And while the performances in this production were generally well-received, some critics found Shaffer’s '70s-era play to be dated.

Lucas begs to differ. “The compelling aspects of ‘Equus’ for me don't take the form of sweeping themes or political undertones, but instead, lie within the guts of the story,” she said. “ … Good stories never go out of fashion.”