Great to see War Horse is celebrating its 2000th performance in the West End with a series of eye catching photo opportunities including Joey, the main “horse” from the show taking a trip on the London eye!
Shame the Metro described him as “mechanised”. The real glory of these extraordinarily life size puppets is there’s nothing mechanised or animatronic about them. The beautifully co-ordinated and very realistic horse movements are achieved in a gloriously low-tech way simply by having a team of puppeteers lugging the leather and wicker frames around the stage.
It takes months of training and a lot of regular physiotherapy to get each puppeteer fit enough for the task and each horse is assigned two lead operators. One is referred to as the head and the other as the heart. (I guess no one wants to be called a horse’s arse even in a hit West End production!)
Whenever anyone asks me to recommend a show my first question is always “Have you seen War Horse?” because it’s not just good it’s life changingly, all-time-top-ten good.
The story of a Devon farm boy journeying through the horrors of the First World War to rescue his horse may be simple and sentimental but it delivers one hell of an emotional punch and it’s so skilfully achieved that within minutes you’ll believe the animal puppets are flesh and blood.
It’s extraordinary to think that during rehearsals the cast and creative team were predicting a disaster, a 2nd director and several writers were drafted in to try and save what promised to be a major and embarrassing flop for the National Theatre. Whatever magic they wove together turned straw to gold because ever since it’s been attracting rave reviews and sell out crowds in London and, until recently, on Broadway. They even launched a German production recently which is surprising because the Germans are very definitely the bad guys in the story.
Having seen it several times in various venues I’m delighted to report that its current home, The New London Theatre, is the ideal venue. The stage is wide enough for the extraordinary set-pieces (You’ll never forget the sight of the horse rearing up against the tank, a perfect metaphor for the new machinery of war crushing the old cavalry traditions) and yet no seat is too far from the stage, allowing you to marvel at the dexterity of the puppeteers as they bring the equestrian warriors of the Western Front to life before your eyes.
It always reduces me to tears and it’s going to be doubly powerful this year as we commemorate the centenary of WW1.
Book ahead now. It’s going to get very busy!
Dates have this week been announced for the West End return of