Adaptor: Nick Stafford (from the novel by Michael Morpurgo)
Director: Tom Morris
One of the most famous puppets in contemporary theatre (Paddington notwithstanding) gallops back onto the Olivier stage at the National Theatre; Joey is back for this 20th anniversary production of War Horse, a show revived, filmed and toured extensively in the last two decades but retaining its stamina and silky lustre. Set largely during the First World War, it may carry an evergreen message about the inevitability of war and the widespread destruction it wreaks while ordinary people wait for “Kaisers and Kings to come to their senses,” but Nick Stafford’s adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel is full of hope that our true humanity can never be truly extinguished.
When his farmer dad pays over the odds for a riding horse at an auction just to best his uncle, Albert becomes devoted to foal Joey, who grows into a valuable and much-desired steed. Offered a large sum to sell him to an army officer when war breaks out in 1914, Joey and Albert are separated by a conflict that takes them both to France when Joey ends up working for the enemy while his favourite owner takes the King’s shilling in search of his best friend.
Duly given the first bow at the curtain call as the admiring cast looks on, the puppeteers working both Joey and fellow military mount Topthorn are just extraordinary, rightly deserving every accolade this production will surely receive for their uncanny characterisation, the creation of personality within their constructed creatures and so carefully managing the borderline between anthropomorphic plot devices and characters with their own equine agency. If you’ve never seen War Horse before, then everything you’ve heard about the craftsmanship of puppet designers Adrian Kohler for Handspring Production Company and Toby Sedgwick’s movement and horse choreography is all true, as their life-sized puppets become almost indistinguishable from reality as the story unfolds.
This is a very technical show with immersive work by Rob Casey as lighting designer and Christopher Shutt on sound, evoking the intensity, fear and drama of life on the front line with explosions, flashes and terrifying shudders that create the impression of bombardment so effectively – doubly so when perceived from Joey’s perspective – as nature and mechanised warfare clash head on. Rae Smith’s drawings become the scenic backdrop, slashed across the stage, tearing through this world projected by 59 Studio to create all the atmosphere the audience needs to visualise the play’s transition from rural Devon to barbed wire, trenches and endless death on the Western Front.
There are some humans onstage as well, and while their stories are lightly told, Morpurgo’s humanity for English, French and German soldiers and civilians caught up in a conflict that none of them started feels embraced in Stafford’s faithful script, while the central story following Tom Sturgess’ Albert is convincing. In places, the show is too faithful perhaps, extending to almost three hours on press night, which is hard going for a family show – there are a number of scenes that could easily be cut with no detriment to the overall story – and there are segments involving animal cruelty, including horse whipping, shooting and maltreatment that younger children may find distressing.
War Horse remains relevant because big men still go to war, and a lot of people suffer for it. But as the remarkable and rather moving conclusion brings two old friends back together, hope remains.
Runs until 30 July 2026
