I was lucky enough to see the original production of War Horse at the National Theatre and also the version that went to the New London Theatre so I was interested to see how the touring production would stack up.
Interested and a little trepidatius if I'm honest as not all big shows transfer well to the touring environment - sometimes because of compromises on the set, lighting and sound and sometimes due to on savings made by reducing the size of the cast.
The first thing I noticed, before the show even started was the massive amount of lighting rigged for the show - a good sign. As soon as the show started we were treated to a full cast (over 30 people on stage) and my trepidation melted.
Nothing will quite match the original NT production due to the impressive stage machinery that could be brought to bear but this production a match for, or perhaps even better than, the New London version. Michael Morpurgo's beautiful tale is brought to life by a mix of projection, puppets, a talented cast and songs - all woven into a wonderful piece of story telling. The play moves easily between scenes, times and places taking us along at each change and making sure that the pace never drops. Wonderful as the horses are, and they are truly wonderful pieces of work, the stories of the boys and men of the First World War touch us just as much. I was recently in Ypes and te shows imagery reminded me of looking through the photos in the museum there - unedited pictures of the destruction of place, people and animals.
This is a wonderful production of a moving story that I would urge you to see ...
p.s. As it was the 10th Anniversary performance, Tom Morris came on stage at the end to give a short speech about the origins and journey of the show ... very interesting ...
