`EQUUS' HOBBLED BY BAD PACING AND LACK OF FOCUS.

Byline: Paul Hodgins Orange County Register

Two decades after it first transfixed us with its primal, psychosexual imagery, Peter Shaffer's ``Equus'' remains a powerful play - so powerful, in fact, that its brilliance can't be dimmed by an execution as flawed as the problematic production at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Director Jules Aaron and his cast have the best of intentions, and in some respects this well-designed staging connects satisfyingly with the primitive instincts that beat at the story's heart.

There's a big problem, though, with a crucial role.

Dr. Martin Dysart is the play's linchpin. The troubled psychiatrist is on stage constantly, and his self-doubts about his marriage and career, his fascination with Greek mythology and his preoccupation with young Alan Strang must interweave meaningfully. Dysart's soliloquies are some of the play's most crucial and moving passages - lyrical, impassioned pleas in defense of the wild, untamed side of our natures and our deep need for worship and myth. We must, above all, root for Dysart and recognize he has a tremendous stake in solving the riddle of Alan's malaise.

Dave Higgins often isn't up to the demands of the role. His Dysart is a problem from the get-go: His first soliloquy is unfocused, badly paced and frustratingly short on magnetism.

Other actors fare better. As Hesther Salomon, the magistrate who commits Alan to Dysart's custody, the always-watchable Hope Alexander-Willis brings out compassionate and even subtly sexual aspects of Dysart's character.

Others reveal the repressed sexual and personal incompatibilities that have twisted Alan's personality. As his parents, Frank and Dora, Mark Capri and Amanda Carlin wonderfully convey the deep tension underlying a strained marriage between a quietly religious woman and a strident Marxist.

As Alan, Eion Bailey sometimes opts for obvious choices, but it's a solid and often brave portrayal nonetheless. His scenes with Jill (Blake Lindsley), a perky stable girl attracted to him, ring with a convincing mix of teen-age angst and sexual allure.

Obvious choices also hobble director Aaron - it's a lead-pipe cinch that soliloquies will be downstage center under a spotlight - but what he lacks in narrative imagination, designer Gary Wissmann compensates for in the inventiveness of his scenic design. A central platform is ringed, Greek amphitheater-style, by risers and columns, nicely echoing Dysart's historical preoccupations and giving the story the resonance of a modern-day myth. The horses - actors with metallic masks and long, terrifying hooves - stand at attention under each column when not in the scene.

If the spirit of this synergistic and evocative design had been extended to other aspects of the production, this ``Equus'' could have been much more than the measured success it is.

THE FACTS

The show: ``Equus,'' Peter Shaffer's disturbing tale of a psychiatrist who probes a boy's secrets.

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; through April 27.

Tickets: $11.50 to $42.50. Call [phone].