Review: War Horse At The New London Theatre
Published on Wednesday 10th November, 11.32am, Written by Mike Shaw
Originally a children’s book, when it was first announced that War Horse was heading for the stage, it was impossible to imagine how the play would look.
The book is told through the eyes of a horse, Joey, as he is raised from a foal by Albert Narracott, a young lad from Devon, before being sold to the yeomanry, shipped off to France, serving in battle, being captured, wounded, and wandering lost in No Man’s Land.
The first step was to walk away from the horse’s-eye-view and tell the story in a more traditional way. The second problem was how to portray the horses. Thankfully someone had a stroke of genius and chose to work with the Handspring Puppet Company who created the horse puppets that have been so heavily publicised. However, ‘puppet’ barely seems to do justice to the astonishing inventions.
Joey confronted by a tank in War Horse at the New London Theatre
With the horses now familiar to many, even those who have not seen the play, they are no less impressive or affecting.
Much is made of the horses, which are less puppets, and more man-powered equine robots, if that makes sense. They look incredible, and despite the economy of design, look as capable of galloping as the real thing.
You won’t find yourself viewing them as real horses, but you will come to forget that they are just a collection of sticks and hinges, and view them as characters in their own right; perhaps an even greater accolade.
Every serious play needs comic relief, and War Horse’s comes in the form of a troublesome goose which lives alongside Joey and desperately wants entry to the Narracott home. A simple model of a bird, mounted on a wheel and pushed around by a quacking actor – the goose is one of the finest comic creations currently on the London stage. Seriously.
At times, War Horse ventures into the avant-garde, and the result is awe-inspiring.
It’s not just all about the animals though, and although most of the human characters are inconsequential, there are exceptions. The stand-out (in terms of character and performance) is Kavallerie Haupmann Friedrich Muller, played by Zubin Varla. Giving the ‘enemy’ a humanity often missing from any material covering either world war, when Joey and another horse, Topthorne, fall into his hands, Muller dedicates his war to caring for them while he waits for the time he is able to go home to his wife and daughter.
The ability of animals to restore man’s humanity is a thread that appears throughout the play, not least when Joey becomes tangled in barbed wire and two soldiers (one British, one German) put their guns down and, with a nod to the Christmas truces, help one another free the trapped horse.
As is the norm in British theatre, there are a handful of wandering accents. Not as bad as those in Billy Elliot, where the standard approach seems to be “If I cycle between adding ‘pet’ and ‘man’ to the end of each line, no one will suspect that I’ve never been north of Zone 4”, but still, it seems that Devon is somewhere just outside Manchester.
The sets are minimal and consist primarily of sketchbook images projected onto a screen above the stage, the screen looking like a strip of torn paper. The images are rough drawings of landscapes, battle scenes, explosions, and are the perfect counterpoint to the intricacy of the onstage action, allowing attention to be focused on the puppet and human performances.
The onstage innovation doesn’t just end with the animals however, and some of the stagecraft on show is frankly incredible: a German tank, a simple frame accompanied by realistic sounds and inspired lighting, rumbles onto the stage; battle scenes are played out in slow motion, with horses and riders galloping across the field of war; an officer is hit by giant, stylised bullet, and is thrown from his horse, carried into a white light by unseen figures. At times, War Horse ventures into the avant-garde, and the result is awe-inspiring.
It’s currently being adapted for the big screen by Steven Spielberg, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and it’s easy to see why – the pacing, cinematic battle scenes, special effects and incidental music already feel like they belong to a big-budget film. While some might feel this is unfavourable for a stage play, I believe it’s what makes War Horse stand out from the majority of Theatreland’s recent output.
Given that it is an adaptation of a children’s book, and is still somewhat aimed at youngsters, don’t expect the sort of profundity offered by the likes of Oh, What A Lovely War! and Birdsong. However, War Horse is still very affecting and like many war dramas, at times, almost unbearably bleak.
Co-directors Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris have turned this story for children into a truly epic piece of theatre that cannot fail to strike an emotional chord.
This is the best review I have read of this show. Thanks – am definitely going to book it.