Trev could not wait to return to Milton Keynes Theatre last night (22/04) to see the highly-anticipated War Horse and here is his full review...
The experience
Having enjoyed the film and currently reading the novel I was really looking forward to The National Theatre's production of War House at the fabulous MK Theatre.
Seen by over 8 million people world-wide, it's not hard to see why it's such a well-loved play.
Based on the novel by author Michael Morpurgo, War Horse tells the emotional and captivating story of Joey, a horse, and his devoted and hopeful master Albert, set first in tranquil rural Devon and then among the horrors of France during the First World War. Joey and the other horses are magnificently brought to life by incredible life-sized ‘puppets’, maneuvered and ‘voiced’ by masterful puppeteers and from the outset you can't help being mesmerised by them and emotionally connected as you would to the real thing. You see the larger movements like the galloping and rearing but also the more subtle flicks of the tail and twitching of the tail and you feel the crippling effort of the pull of plough and huge machine gun through the heaving chests.
The settings are created though the use of deceptively simple staging – I liked the way the actors moved with fencing posts to create the horse enclosures, and the Devon house just represented by a door, the closing of which repeatedly comically thwarts a waddling goose! A screen above the stage helps set the scenes, first of rural Devon showing the fields through the changing seasons and then the skies of war in France, with moving planes and galloping horses. Adding to the story and emotions we have the music and singing, more pastoral in Devon, then more striking and powerful at war and the regular, often haunting and beautiful refrains of ‘the singer’.
Whilst the horses are scene steelers the human actors are also wonderful, their reactions to the horses themselves key to the audience’s reactions to them. Albert’s acting with Joey is so warm and you really feel the connection between them. The actors and puppeteers bring to life the strained family relationships on the farm in Devon particularly between Albert and his father and then the horrors and pity of war for soldiers, civilians and horses on both sides. Threaded through is warmth and Albert’s unwavering hope that he and Joey will be reunited.
A wonderful and mesmerising, emotionally charged play.
The story
War Horse tells the remarkable story of a young boy called Albert and his horse Joey, set against the backdrop of the First World War. This powerfully moving and imaginative drama is a show of phenomenal inventiveness, filled with stirring music and songs, featuring ground-breaking puppetry work by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, which brings breathing, galloping, charging, horses to thrilling life on stage and has inspired a generation of theatre-makers since its premiere in 2007.
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 journey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man’s land. Albert, who remained on his parents’ Devon farm, cannot forget Joey. Though still not old enough to enlist he embarks on a treacherous mission to find him and bring him home.
“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,” said director, Tom Morris.
“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.
“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.”
This tour of War Horse marks 110 years since the start of the First World War and follows the 40th anniversary of the publication of Michael Morpurgo’s global best-selling novel, which has now sold over 35 million copies worldwide and in 37 different languages.
“I am so delighted the National Theatre’s iconic production of War Horse is back,” said Michael Morpurgo. “When Covid closed the show down in 2020 in Australia in the midst of its second world tour, many thought, and I was amongst them, that we’d never see War Horse on stage again. Now it’s really happening – we will hear the music and songs, be amazed by its design and lighting, live Joey’s story again.
“War Horse is about the tragedy of war and about a horse and his boy, but it's also so many other things – it's about family and community, courage and loss, hope, and most importantly reconciliation.”
War Horse received its world premiere on 9th October 2007 at the National Theatre, where it played for two seasons before opening at the New London Theatre in March 2009. Since then, it has been seen in 97 cities in 14 countries.
War Horse is at Milton Keynes Theatre from Tuesday 22nd April until Saturday 3rd May.
Book your tickets now
https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/war-horse/milton-keynes-theatre/
