The Onion Strikes Again

Second-grade students at Franklin Elementary School impressed parents, teachers, and fellow students with their recent production of Peter Shaffer's Equus Friday.

The avant-garde play, described by audience members as 'adorable,' was originally produced in London in 1973. The story revolves around troubled 17-year-old Alan Strang, played by Kyle Keever, 7, and his encounters with his psychiatrist after he blinds six horses with a metal spike. The play focuses on the causes underlying a seemingly senseless act of violence, and forces characters and audience members alike to confront questions of responsibility and ultimate meaning.

"The kids loved it," teacher and director Michael Komarek said. "Once they stopped screaming about horses getting their eyes gouged out and realized that it was just a launching point for more complex ideas about alienation from the modern world, they rolled up their sleeves and dug right in."

Reminds me of the time my kindergarten class staged Shampoo. Of course, my teacher, Ms. Gundersen, said we were so bad the play was unfit for our parents to see and closed down production with the suggestion that we not tell a soul, which we didn't. I did wonder why, if we were so bad, she bothered to keep the video tape, but who knows?

Teachers, eh.