I have seen the adverstisements of this play in the Underground, and I was intrigued by the picture. On the other hand I thought it was for children, and boy was I wrong. More wrong than I could ever imagine. A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to see the play last December when I was in London to do some Christmas shopping. I am a keen horse rider, and I love to watch the horse races that made England famous, so I said yes. I saw some clips on You Tube and I was really impressed by what I saw, but it didn't prepare me for the real experience. War Horse is a story about a horse called Joey and a boy called Albert. Albert's dad wins Joey at an auction and that is the start of a friendship that takes both Joey and Albert to dangerous places. At first all is fine, and Joey is growing up fast and well. Then WW1 breaks out and Albert's dad sells Joey to the British army to serve them. Ofcourse Albert is devestated with the news and one day he runs away from home to join the army. He wants to find Joey. The play is based on the book by Michael Morpurgo. He heard about the animals that were used, abused and lost in the war and wanted to write a story about it. War Horse tells the story from Joey's view.
The Theatre itself is modern and it has an interesting architecture, as far as I could see. The seats were comfortable and there was plenty of room for my long legs. I have other experiences in theatres, and I was pleasantly surprised with this. The play itself was beyond imagination. The actors did a great job, and some of them were also working with puppets, like goose and hens. But the real stars for me were the horses. It takes 3 people to make the horses work. And they do an amazing job. I ride horses on a weekly basis and got to know lots of movements and sounds they make. These people were able to fall away and let me see a real horse instead of a mechanic one. The movements and noises were very recognizable. It was like watching horses from my riding school. I felt very sad when Topthorne (another army horse) died, and also when another horse was shot dead. The combination of actors and puppets is amazing. I have never seen anything like this, and I really want to see it again. There is so much going on that you loose eye on details sometimes. The nice thing is that the theatre is used itself, as you see actors walking around and you are even a part of the war, which was a bit of a scary experience. This play impressed me so much that I still can't believe what I saw on stage. My compliments to all involved, and I recommand it to everybody who loves a wonderful story about war and friendship. War Horse is an amazing play and people who work with horses or ride them, will be amazed at the accuracity of the puppeteers who work with the horses. I had some good laughs at some of the things the horses did and the interaction between Albert and Joey is unbelievable. A big thanks to all involved in the play for giving me such an incredible experience, one that I will never forget.
You can find more information on the play or order tickets on the official War Horse site. http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/warhorse
