War Horse

Tonight I had this fun opportunity to go see War Horse on press night with my friend Emma. This means we got to schmooze with famous people at the after party. We didn't do quite enough schmoozing with famous people, but we did eat and drink and stalk famous people. But enough about stalking famous people - to the play!

I must say I had kind of built up wanting to see this play while it was at the National but missed it, and so was pretty happy for this opportunity to see it on press night of its West End transfer. So I went in with some high hopes and expectations. Usually this ends up in disappointment, but tonight was not the case.

War Horse follows the story of, you guessed it, a horse. More specifically it follows the friendship between this boy and his horse, and how they get separated because the horse gets sold to serve in WWI. It was a moving play following a very touching friendship with solid acting and a really nice drawing/video projected backdrop, but the real standout of the play is the puppetry that really makes the play come alive. The horses (of which there are quite a few) are controlled mainly by three puppeteers, and the way they move - running, jumping, whinnying, and even just breathing - is really quite breathtaking. The horses are clearly puppets and not like real horses, but the movements and small quirks were so lifelike that they seemed just like real animals on stage. Other animals made their way on stage, most notably a very entertaining puppet goose. It was pretty surprising how gripped I was just staring at a horse puppet running around on stage with no dialogue and no other characters for like five minutes. The play was almost three hours, but in no way felt it.

The one thing I thought was a little weird was how the play really only worked because so many of the characters were equiphiles that bordered on the slightly disturbing. They seemed to care more about the horses than they did about their own lives and safety, which at time seemed a little ridiculous. But I guess that was symbolic of humanity and compassion even in a time of war - the ability for anyone to do good regardless of whether they were the "good guys" or the "bad guys."

Worth seeing. Go check it out.