This is London Magazine June Edition 2026 - Flipbook - Page 24
Photos: Brinkhoff Moegenburg
24
WAR HORSE
National Theatre
There is birdsong on stage. There are
huge sketches of the Devon countryside
projected onto a backdrop partially
obscured by the seeming ripped page of
a book. There are country folk in country
clothing in all shades of brown. It is
August 1914 and life goes on as usual at
a horse market, where two men bid up
the price of a pretty foal in a show of
hostility which has dark familial roots.
But that is all before the War.
At once a touching story of a boy’s
simple love for his horse and a visceral
recreation of the horrors of World War I,
this stage adaptation of Michael
Morpurgo’s novel is probably the most
emotional play any of us will see this
year. The novel was published in 1982,
and the original production premiered at
the National Theatre in London in 2007.
This revival comes after more than 7,500
performances worldwide, and yet the
show has lost none of its freshness or
passion.
Tom Sturgess is the boy, Albert,
whose father buys the foal at auction in a
fit of spite at his estranged brother, thus
squandering the farm mortgage money.
Twelve puppeteers play two horses –
astonishing skeletal frames with manes
of ribbon and legs of burnished copper.
The horses’ movements are an
extraordinary feat of balletic
coordination. A few steps forward, a toss
of the head, a few steps back. A snort
and a whinny. The sheer power of theatre
can be seen in these larger-than-life
puppets, which inspire our affection –
and then our pity as they lie in pieces on
the battlefield.
Despite knowing what is coming –
Albert’s cash-strapped father sells the
beloved horse to a recruiting officer for
the British Army – the darkening skies
and jangling tone of Adrian Sutton’s
sweeping orchestral score pitches us
into the first bloody skirmish like a
sunbather entering an ice bath. The lads
who marched off happily enough from a
Devon village to do their duty by King
and country are terrified or killed or
both. But what of the horses? There was
but one cavalry charge in Belgium at the
start of the war, which demonstrated the
appalling inequality between shining
swords and machine guns.
That Joey, our hero horse, makes it
through these early days is pure poetic
licence. Later, he becomes entangled in
barbed wire in No man’s land and sparks
a tiny moment of truce as British and
German soldiers work together to free
him. Can there be any spark of hope
here in our own troubled and violent
times?
Just as animals can bring people
together, so too can theatre. This
magnificent production deserves to run
and run. But beware: just because it is
based on a children’s book does not
mean it is suitable for younger children.
I took my own daughter, and she was
sobbing before the interval. She is 26.
Sue Webster
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