War Horse to return for new tour

The award-winning War Horse will tour the nation this autumn.

Marianne Elliott, Tom Morris and Nick Stafford’s version of Michael Morpurgo’s story follows a horse as it crosses over to the Western Front to witness the horrors of the trenches.

The piece is directed by Morris with revival director Katie Henry, featuring reimagined designs by Rae Smith and additional music by Adrian Sutton.  Puppet design and fabrication is by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler for Handspring Puppet Company, lighting design is by Rob Casey, movement and horse choreography is by Toby Sedgwick with puppet direction by Matthew Forbes.  Animation and projection design is by Nicol Scott for 59 Productions, John Tams is songmaker and sound design is by Christopher Shutt.  Casting is by Jill Green CDG and associate designer is Will Fricker.

Morris said today, “It is a huge privilege to be invited to revisit War Horse and to share this powerful story once more with audiences around the country.  Michael Morpurgo’s brilliant idea, to explore the crushing violence of war through the experience of a horse, makes his story as powerful and resonant today as it has ever been. And in this time of increasing commercialism in theatre, it’s worth remembering that the production which carried War Horse to an international audience was a wild experiment, developed through workshops at the National Theatre Studio, the unique theatre laboratory where ground-breaking hits from Coram Boy and London Road to The Witches were devised.

“It has been an enormous thrill to return there in recent months to reunite Adrian Kohler’s magnificent puppets with designer Rae Smith, composer Adrian Sutton and other members of the original cast and creative team to start the process of bringing Joey back to the stage.”

The new tour will open on 5 September at the New Wimbledon Theatre, before visiting the Lowry in Salford from 18 September, the Mayflower, Southampton from 8 October, Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre from 22 October, Sunderland Empire from 5 November, Theatre Royal Plymouth from 26 November and New Theatre Oxford from 10 December for an extended festive run.