War Horse – National Theatre of Great Britain

Overview

When I hear the words, "a tale of a boy and his horse", my thoughts stray to the heartfelt moments of The NeverEnding Story where Atreyu bids farewell to poor Artax in the Swamp of Sadness. In Atreyu's screams and Artax's wild eyes, my childhood self felt a shiver of understanding about the bond between humans and animals.

There are definitely a few of these damp-eye moments in the National Theatre of Great Britain's production of War Horse, but they are overshadowed by what this show is really about: fantastic puppetry and some tight choreography. Based on Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel of the same name, War Horse was adapted for the stage by British playwright Nick Stafford and directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris way back in 2007.

Opening shortly before the start of the First World War, War Horse is the love story of a Devonshire lad, Albert (Cody Fern), and a young foal, Joey, who, once it's come of age, is sold into service for the British Army. Seeing the injustice in this, our boy hero fights against age restrictions and cartwheels to Calais to save Joey, at which point his youthful bravado is tear-gassed into the harsh reality of early modern warfare. The play proved to be such a tremendous success that it relocated to the West End, then to Broadway and has now manifested in the antipodes at the Lyric Theatre.

War Horse owes its longevity to South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company, which has created a stable of horses, some soon-to-die cavalry, crows, swallows and a very animated goose. Though surrounded by puppeteers and, in parts, constructed out of obviously mechanical pieces, these puppets realistically breath and quickly pop out as the most genuine players in the show.

Apparently Morpurgo was surprised to hear that his novel was being adapted for the stage. This is with good reason — the length that a novel has with which to enter the lives of its many characters is far longer than the 135 minutes allowed by a theatre audience's patience. The result is that War Horse limps through several overly sentimental, surface-level episodes that were probably very satisfying on the page. A twee relationship between a German deserter and a rural French family is particularly shallow.

It is in the archetypal that War Horse's narrative works, in the dramatic sequences of puppets and choreographed soldiers clashing on field of cruel warfare. A strong creative team featuring set and costume designer Rae Smith, sound designers Christopher Shutt and John Owens, lighting designer Karen Spann and choreographer Toby Sedgwick produce several powerful moments on the Lyric stage, with a doomed cavalry charge and Joey's gallop for freedom amongst tanks and barbed wire especially moving.

War Horse has marked thousands of audiences by now, and it is certainly worth watching as a celebration of theatre craftsmanship. However, it would excel with a tighter script and less reliance on puppets to sell the story.