Equus Contents
- Act One Scene One
- Act One Scene Two
- Act One Scene Three
- Act One Scene Four
- Act One Scene Five
- Act One Scene Six
- Act One Scene Seven
- Act One Scene Eight
- Act One Scene Nine
- Act One Scene Ten
- Act One Scene Eleven
- Act One Scene Twelve
- Act One Scene Thirteen
- Act One Scene Fourteen
- Act One Scene Fifteen
- Act One Scene Sixteen
- Act One Scene Seventeen
- Act One Scene Eighteen
- Act One Scene Nineteen
- Act One Scene Twenty
- Act One Scene Twenty-one
- Act Two Scene Twenty-two
- Act Two Scene Twenty-three
- Act Two Scene Twenty-four
- Act Two Scene Twenty-five
- Act Two Scene Twenty-six
- Act Two Scene Twenty-seven
- Act Two Scene Twenty-eight
- Act Two Scene Twenty-nine
- Act Two Scene Thirty
- Act Two Scene Thirty-one
- Act Two Scene Thirty-two
- Act Two Scene Thirty-three
- Act Two Scene Thirty-four
- Act Two Scene Thirty-five
Peter Shaffer’s early life and career
Family background
Peter Levin Shaffer was born in Liverpool in 1926 to an Orthodox Jewish family. He had an identical twin brother, Anthony (1926 – 2001), who was also a writer. As children the twin boys were often dressed alike, and grew up with a strong sense of rivalry, made stronger by their similar professions. The Shaffer family was close, although not without some tension, which is reflected in some of the plays.
As a child, Peter Shaffer was interested in a range of things:
- He liked puzzles and games, which the critic Gene Plunka relates to the psychiatric puzzles of his plays
- He learned Hebrew, and was bar mitzvahed at the age of thirteen
- He learned music and showed great aptitude. Musical structures appear in several of his plays.
Education
Initially, Peter and his brother went to a local prep school in Liverpool. After the family moved to London in 1936, they attended St Paul’s School in London.Shaffer did well there and won a scholarship, or exhibition, to Trinity College, Cambridge.
However, before he could go to Cambridge he was required to do war service, so both Anthony and Peter worked as Bevin Boys in coal mines in Kent. Peter in particular strongly disliked both working underground and the manual labour. Eventually he became ill, and developed a duodenal ulcer. Shaffer has suggested since that both the experience of the hard work and the subsequent illness helped him to empathise with other people.
At university, Peter Shaffer was rather a loner, but did well academically and seemed to be happy. He read History, but with a developing interest in a literary career, especially after a radio play which he had written was accepted by the BBC in 1947.
Shaffer’s early career
Possibly due to his upbringing, Shaffer felt that a career as a playwright would be frivolous, so he tried instead to get a job in publishing. After having no success, he went to New York, where he had a variety of jobs. Whilst he loved the city, he did not seem to settle there, although he did attend the theatre frequently.
When he eventually returned to the UK, his writing career really began, with novels, radio plays, prose and eventually his first full-length play, Five Finger Exercise. This full-length drama, which has retained its popularity into the present, first opened in 1958 and won awards. Its success launched his playwriting career. At the same time, he also became a music critic for the periodical Time and Tide.
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