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Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is to shed his wizarding robes to take the lead role in a stage production of "Equus", an erotic part that will require the young British actor literally to bare all.
The 17-year-old confirmed on a website dedicated to him a number of newspaper reports Friday that he would appear in the drama at a theatre in London's West End early next year.
Radcliffe will play stable boy Alan Strang in Peter Shaffer's controversial tale about a boy's infatuation with horses.
As part of the role, he will have to simulate sexual pleasure while riding naked on his horse, The Times newspaper reported.
Radcliffe, in comments posted on www.danradcliffe.co.uk, said: "This is obviously a huge departure for me as an actor, but 'Equus' is such an amazing play that this really was an opportunity not to be missed."
Despite the challenge, he added that he was "really excited" to be part of the show, which will be directed by Thea Sharrock.
Another Harry Potter actor -- Richard Griffiths, who played the boy-wizard's grumpy uncle, Vernon Dursley -- is also lined up to star alongside Radcliffe.
Griffiths will play a psychiatrist who interviews Strang after the boy blinds six horses with a metal spike.
Rehearsals are due to start in January.
Away fom the stage, Radcliffe and Griffiths are already hard at work filming the fifth installment of J. K. Rowling's best-selling Harry Potter series -- "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix".
Shaffer's "Equus" play caused a sensation when it was first staged in Britain in 1973. The story is based on a real-life incident in which a boy inexplicably maims six horses.
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AFPEntertainment-Britain-theatre-literature-people-Potter
AFP 281431 GMT 07 06
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