Synopsis I want you to do yourself proud, Joey. You go and drive those Germans back where they've come from, and then come home to me. At the outbreak of World War one, Joey, young Albert's beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. he's soon caught up in enemy fire, and fate takes him on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man's land. but Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to find him and bring him home. Do I look like I know the latest on every effing ?orse in the war? Do I look like an effing equine expert or even an effing equestrian enthusiast? Your squadron no longer exists. That's all I know, Private. Suitable for 12yrs+ Running time 2 hours 25 minutes inc. interval.
The surprise and delightful shock of the great sculptured horses in Nick Stafford’s adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s story may have diminished for audiences since the production opened at the National Theatre 18 months ago, but the experience is no less moving or engaging.
And the New London is an ideal home for the show, especially for Rae Smith’s open expanse of a design – backed off with her wonderful sketchy drawings, landscapes and silhouettes - that accommodates the horses, soldiers and farm workers of the story, not to mention the skittering goose that darts across the stage with its puppeteer in tow.
The Handspring Puppet Company of Cape Town that has devised the show with NT directors Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris has, I think, received due recognition for its outstanding work, but the magic remains, especially in the figures of Joey the hunter colt who grows into the carthorse in the killing fields in France, and the magnificent black stallion Topthorn.
Each horse is manned by three puppeteers in the head, the heart and the hind, and each really does assume a humanity that has nothing to do with the cute anthropomorphism that even Morpurgo cannot avoid in his first (horse) person narrative. I’d not registered before the elements of The Hired Man and Oh, What a Lovely War! in the community and military passages, and although the show primarily celebrates animals, several actors also manage to make a mark: Bronagh Gallagher as Albert’s mother, Alan Williams as his unkind uncle and Patrick O'Kane as the German officer who’s moved by the horse he brutally commandeers.
Above all, it’s a true spectacular with real heart, melding songs and hymns in Adrian Sutton’s fine music, terrifying incursions of the artillery and rolling battle tanks, and a heart-stopping moment when Joey is entangled in barbed wire. And the final reunion retains the best sort of theatrical sentimentality, tolerable because hard-won and fully deserved.
The first Albert, Luke Treadaway, had a spiritual urgency about him that Kit Harington doesn’t quite match, and the directors should have sorted some tangled plot lines, when it’s not clear which French farm we’re on and which German officer we dislike most. But War Horse is a real winner in the West End, and for once I will take neigh for an answer.
- Michael Coveney
NOTE: The following FOUR-STAR review dates from October 2007 and this production's original run at the National Theatre.
The ongoing argument about adaptation as theatre fodder has been rejuvenated with this thrilling version of Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 children’s novel War Horse. The story of Joey, a country horse who is sold into the cavalry at the outbreak of the First World War, is transformed into a parable of beast’s nobility and man’s futility on a level of artistic experience way beyond the novelist’s prose.
As a soul-stirring treat, not untinged with bitterness, for all the family this Christmas, or as an example of how theatre can be created from disparate components – puppetry, lighting, movement and sound – War Horse will not be surpassed by any show this year.
From the auction in Devon in 1912 to the Armistice six years later, we follow Joey’s journey through the killing fields of France, behind the enemy lines, as well as in No Man’s Land, until his determined young owner, Albert Narracott (Luke Treadaway), tracks him down – through a pretty massive stroke of luck, it must be said – and brings him home.
The horses – at one point there are seven lining up for battle on a great, melancholy diagonal – are created by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler for the Handspring Puppet Company. The outer skeleton, a sort of poetic equine corsetry, is inhabited by two actors, fully visible within the structure, manipulating the huge head and draped in the strips of mane and horse hair. Their movement is muscular and momentous.
The element of anthropomorphic tweeness – unavoidable in Morpurgo’s book which, as in Black Beauty, is recounted by the humanised horse himself – is entirely expunged. Nor are the actors – the large cast includes Angus Wright as a sympathetic German officer, Alan Williams as a battle-fatigued trooper and Toby Sedgwick, the brilliant movement director, as both human and horse – necessarily diminished. They just represent a lower level of dignity as the horse becomes a transfigured species.
The story is a variation on Tolstoy’s Story of a Horse, also known as Strider, which was famously produced in the Russian theatre in the mid 1970s by Georgi Tovstonogov and later by Yuri Lyubimov, who then did a version at the NT with Michael Pennington]as a horse strapped in leathers. And of course Equus started at the NT, too.
But this production raises the bar on horse tales on stage. It is a majestic confluence of direction by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, beautiful design by Rae Smith (I particularly like the inky landscapes drawn across the back of the stage), lighting by Paule Constable, and music by Adrian Sutton and John Tams which has a sonorous, anthemic quality that manages to avoid Elgarian self-importance.
The puppetiers are brilliant, they deserve much better material.I also liked the balladic narrative. However the story line is unconvincing and banal and the dramatization reminiscent of school, lots of acted pushing, falling over and shouting. Nothing sensitive or moving and I'm at a loss to understand the praise that's been heaped upon it.The first half is watchable, just, but once the horses "cross the line" to the other side the whole thing looses it's way completely. - Simon Munt
01 Feb 12
I think this production had it all. I watched warhorse at the New London and was amazed with its technical brilliance. It had a superbly written storyline taken from the Michael Morpurgo book and was adapted to the stage beautifully. For not one moment in this production was I bored. The topic of the production was tackled brilliantly: of the extensive use of horses used in WW1 and that many didn't return. The film had it all: humour, a dysfunctional family, rivalry, poignancy; but most of all the relationship between a young man and a horse. All the actors did a superb job and told the story brilliantly. But the best part of this production - the triumph - has to be the puppets. All of the puppets even the simple birds flying around and the humorous goose were fantastic. But the best puppets were the amazing horses and the puppeteers who created this magic. The small foal was used brilliantly. Then came the spine-tingling moment when Joey turned from a foal to a horse. The puppets movements were exactly like a horse - so much so that I certainly forgot the puppeteers below and saw it as a horse. The war scenes in the production were sad but done sensitively and I especially enjoyed seeing the production show the war from both sides. This is a triumph and one of the best productions to hit the stage. - Dan
22 Sep 11
Found this a bit boring especially the 1st half which went on a bit too long.
Maybe the subject matter did not appeal mainly older people in audience
- Linda
28 Aug 11
This was a really interesting production but I am sorry to say it really was too long. There were too many flat and dull moments and although the horses were absolutely fantastic, there was, I am sorry to say, not enough narrative or soul. It should not last no more than 2 hours and the music could be better. Sorry all your guys who loved it. - Robin
28 Jul 11
Loved every minute of this amazing production. Tears filled my eyes,and went home thinking of this memorable performance. So glad I went...best theatre i've seen in years - jenny
07 May 11
What a fantastic production. I was gripped by every part of it. in a very short time I had fogoton the the horse was indeed a puppett as did my fianace.
We like most of the audience were moved to tears at the end. I have told all my friends this is a MUST to see - James
04 Apr 11
My best theatre experience in the last 2 years. Still playing to a "Full House" and a standing ovations for the cast at the end of the play.
It should be on your "must see lit" for 2011! - Alan Medd
18 Mar 11
I am amazed at he comments below 3 stars, if just for the technical excellence of the horse puppets. The story of WWI is, inevitably well known (God knows we 'overdo it' at school) but the humanity and devotion shown through the central characters (human and animal) is worth sharing and worth showing to a world, often weary of caring and incapable of true humanity. Have we become so cynical that we cannot go back to a simpler time in our hearts and revel in a rip-roaring story of love and family and despair and joy? I took friends and my own children on Christmas Eve and it made our Christmas. We came out more thoughful, talking about aspects of the play all the way back home. I thought it was magical in a way that I have not seen for many years. Let yourself be swept up in the vastness and suspend disbelief-it is worth it for the lightness of heart you will feel as you leave the theatre (handkie in hand). Loved, the book, loved the play. - DB
10 Mar 11
Saw this play last night. It was brilliant! The puppetry was so amazing that you really believed they were real horses. I also liked the use of imagery and the props were so effective. My only critism was that the second half was a tad too long and the diction of the German officer was difficult to understand. Still that did not detract from this amazing piece of theatre. - Deirdre B
01 Jan 11
I think the war horse was amazing.It realy portraid what horses have done for us in the war and,being a horse owner myself,how we can sometimes take them for granted.AMAZING puppetry.It has helped me to understand the concept of war from a horses point of view.Big fan of the book and would love to see the play again.I realy don't understand how people can give this any lower then 5 stars :) - Savannah
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