Shock horror! Parents displeased
Daniel Radcliffe, who shot to worldwide fame as four-eyed wizard hero Harry Potter, is causing conniptions in some UK parenting circles because he's (gasp!) growing up.
Radcliffe is about to star in a revival of Peter Shaffer’s 1973 classic Equus - opening in London this month (February) at the Gielgud Theatre.
Radcliffe, now a buff and scrumptious 17, plays the mentally disturbed stable lad Alan Strang who, one night, blinds six of his beloved horses with a hoofpick; Richard Griffiths is cast in the role of the psychiatrist whose quest is to discover why.
Posters for the play depict Radcliffe in lowslung jeans variously posing alone, with a horse and with a young, barebreasted woman - co-star Joanna Christie. (Her back is to the audience - no worries about stray nipples.) In the course of the play he will also appear in the raw.
London’s Daily Mail reports "outraged parents" have been bombarding Harry Potter websites with complaints such as this one: "We as parents feel Daniel should not appear nude. Our nine-year-old son looks up to him as a role model. We are very disappointed and will avoid the future movies he makes."
A parental guidance counsellor comments: "It is disturbing that adults and specifically adults who are parents appear to have such difficulty differentiating between fiction and reality. It seems many believe it is Harry Potter who is appearing on stage rather than a young man who is an actor."
Radcliffe is the first actor of note to be the age specified by the playwright for Alan Strang. First to play the role was Peter Firth, in the play's London premiere production in 1973; he was then 20; Tom Hulce took the role on Broadway in 1975 at 22 and, most recently in the US, in 2005, babyface spunk Randy Harrison - at 28.
