Theatregoers adjudicate if Alan’s problems began from education in the Bible and crucifixion iconography or their withdrawal by his father.

IF GOD GOT a percentage from religious dramas, Sir Peter Shaffer (1926-2016) would swell the celestial ledgers. In The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), Inca emperor Atahualpa, son of the Sun God, is kidnapped by Christian missionaries set to convert him. Faithful Catholic composer Salieri in Amadeus (1979) is appalled that the Almighty channels divine music through the blasphemous, scatological Mozart. And, in Equus (1973), 17-year-old Alan Strang, caught between his mother’s Christianity and father’s atheism, constructs around horses a personal theology so warped that he blinds half a dozen with a hoof pick.

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