Radcliffe sheds wizard robes for role in Equus

Boy wizard Daniel Radcliffe will take his magic to the London stagein March in the role of a troubled stable boy in Equus.

The Harry Potter star is required to strip off and ride a horse naked in the controversial play, which examines mysticism and adolescent sexual obsession.

"This is an extraordinary play and, yes, there is a scene of nudity in it, but that's not what the play is about," said Radcliffe's publicist, Vanessa Davies.

Radcliffe, 17, wraps up filming of the fifth instalment of theincreasingly dark Hogwarts saga this November with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The Equus role, to begin rehearsals in January, will require a brooding, tortured presence similar to his Potter role.

"He is maturing as an actor and beginning to take on new and challenging roles," Davies said.

The play centres on the relationship between a psychiatrist and a stable boy, Alan Strang, who has put out the eyes of six horses with a metal spike.

Richard Griffiths, who won a Tony Award for The History Boys and plays the grumpy uncle in the Harry Potter series, will play opposite Radcliffe as a psychiatrist.

The West End production will be directed by Thea Sharrock, but the theatre where it will be playing has yet to be determined.

Peter Shaffer wrote the play, which debuted at the Old Vic theatre in 1973 and won a Tony Award during its extended New York run. A 1977 film was also made.

The psychological drama unfolds the story of the troubled stable boy as a mystery and attempts to come to grips with the forces in the modern world that caused him to commit the crime.

J.K. Rowling is currently writing the seventh and, she says, final book in the popular Harry Potter series. Order of the Phoenix is the fifth book to be made into a film.