You have nine more days to see it in Hong Kong, if you haven’t already. War Horse at the Academy for Performing Arts is an unforgettable show. Is it suitable for children? We wonder. Sitting next to us on a high chair was a three-year-old girl, a lovely little tot with be-ribboned hair. When the Battle of the Somme was being recreated on stage with shells exploding, guns cracking, lights flashing blindingly and poor horses ill-treated by warring soldiers, the small child beside us hung her head and would not look at the stage.
War Horse is a condemnation of the cruelty and stupidity of war-mongering humans. Every army in the First World War used horses. Britain alone had one million in the field. They served in the cavalry and pulled artillery, ambulances and supply wagons. Hundreds of thousands of horses died. Shell-shocked, some drowned in ankle-deep mud too exhausted to raise their heads to breathe.
The Lyric Theatre show tells the story of a Devon farm-raised horse named Joey. He grows up with a teenage friend, Albert. After World War I begins, Joey is sold to the army and shipped to France where he becomes a cavalry horse in the mayhem of the front. He is captured by Germans. One officer looks after him saving the horse from vicious colleagues. Joey finds himself in no man’s land, weak, dying and entangled in barbed wire. Meanwhile, Albert has come looking for his equine mate…
Joey is a 16-hands-high puppet manipulated by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company. He looks and behaves like a real horse, wins audience hearts and as his suffering in the war intensifies there are many teary eyes in the crowd. Based on a book by Michael Morpurgo, the show is by the National Theatre of Great Britain. The cast is large, about 40, six horses perform on the stage together, tanks roar threatening the front seat people, and a goose is amusingly aggressive. Our matinee audience gave the cast a standing ovation, particularly the rearing, whinnying and bowing Joey.
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