Writer: Michael Morpurgo
Adaptor: Nick Stafford
Director: Tom Morris and Revival Director Katie Henry
War Horse is a modern classic, a spectacle of the stage with cinematic sound, breath-taking settings, and phenomenal puppetry – it makes you long for the front row!
Albert, a young farmer’s son, tames a spirited young horse, Joey. After his father’s cruel bet almost separates the pair forever, Joey is sent off to the front lines as a war horse. Longing to know Joey is safe, Albert resorts to desperate measures to protect his life-long companion.
The star of the show, Joey, comes to life from foal to stallion before the audience’s eyes. The talented puppeteers from the award-winning Handspring Puppet Company vanish from your focus and let your imagination take hold so all you see is a living, breathing, wild creature on stage. The horse’s dark eyes look right back at you and every subtle movement, the twitch of an ear, the brush of its tail is emotive, animated, and dynamic.
Visceral battle scenes have chest-rattling gunshots and explosions which recoil the audience into their seats, only made more impactful by the minimalist setting of a blackened stage with a single scrap of parchment tearing across its centre. Projections onto this scrap display sketches, scenery, diagrams, and diary excerpts to transform the stage into a Devonshire farm, a raging sea, and a battlefield.
The animation, lighting, and sound departments led by 59, Rob Casey, and Christopher Shutt respectively, are stand-out features of this performance. Providing moving scenery for the horses to gallop through and imaginative detail for the many settings of the play. The projections are good enough to make you forget there are no permanent set pieces on stage. Yet each setting feels vivid and lifelike, even if it is an ensemble cast member holding a paddock or a suspended door frame and window to represent a house, the animation paints a full picture.
Though a hard-hitting play set during the First World War, heart-warming laughter filled the theatre as comedic moments kept the show light. Tom Sturgess as Albert Narracott, Joey’s owner, plays the role with inspiring vigour through the horrors of the wartorn setting making it impossible to keep an optimistic smile from your face. Alexander Ballinger’s moving performance as Captain Friedrich Müller makes your heart ache for an enemy soldier who wishes nothing more than to be no part of the war other than to protect the lost horses in his care.
Enchanting vocals from Anne-Marie Piazz and the large ensemble cast seamlessly transitioned scenes from one to another. At times lamenting songs and the fanfare of a trumpet could be heard from the balconies to immerse the audience in a surround sound experience.
However, it is noticeable the cast is slightly overshadowed by the immense puppetry and technical effects of the staging. However, the talent of the acting puts up a good fight. This criticism is only a compliment to how life-like and characterful the puppeteers perform, stealing the focus from all other aspects of the show especially since there are several breath-taking horses and other animal puppets like small birds, crows, and a feisty goose which are used in the play. Each with their own defining characteristics and unique personalities.
By the end of the play, there is hardly a dry eye in the house. The inspiring story of a love of animals uniting people across the front lines depicts the very best of humanity. Almost two decades since its first performance for the National Theatre in 2007, War Horse breathes new life into the first-hand accounts of countless soldiers who fought in World War I. An estimated ten million people died between 1914 and 1918. And there by their side were one million horses which were taken from Britain to war in France, only 62,000 of which were brought back.
To date over 7,500 performances of War Horse have been held and more than 8.3 million people have seen the show that transformed theatre history. Author, Michael Morpurgo reflects on the play’s genesis, saying: “Tom [Morris] rang me up and told me he wanted to make War Horse into a play. I was utterly thrilled. But then he told me the bad news: they wanted to use puppets.
“I thought to myself: there is no way puppets can enact the seriousness of the First World War. (…) But on press night, the most magical transformation had taken place. (…) I was suddenly aware of this extraordinary atmosphere around me. At the end a thousand people rose as one. Tears were streaming down faces.”
War Horse continues to be a fan and critically favoured production with over 25 major awards to its name and it’s not difficult to see why, this is an unrivalled performance experience which is essential viewing for lovers of theatre and the film.
Runs until 8 March 2025
The Reviews Hub Score
Unmissable Modern Classic
