True friends torn apart on the battlefield
ONE hundred years ago, as the world entered the aftermath of the First World War, the families of ten million military personnel — most of them young men — were starting to come to terms with what they’d lost.
Some, the lucky ones, had got notice of the deaths; others just never heard from their loved ones again. Over the next few years, as the world returned to some kind of normality, the futility of their deaths hit home.
And yet the ‘war of all wars’ — so called because the sheer horror of it convinced the world that such madness would never be repeated — failed to stop the same nightmare from descending over and over again.
But it wasn’t only ten million men — it is believed the British sent about one million horses into battle alongside the soldiers, galloping out of the trenches, pulling ration carts and acting as ambulances for the injured. Just 62,000 of them returned.
The animals were often appallingly treated — though not always at the fault of the soldiers tasked with looking after them. Food was as scarce for them as it was for the men, and as the injury toll totted up, so too did the horses’ loads.
Many of them died in agony on the battlefields, lost to the immense risk of their last gallop in the face of shells and machine guns. Some took days to die.
Michael Morpurgo’s children’s novel War Horse was sparked by a painting from the First World War of a British cavalry charging up a hill towards the Germans. It gave him the idea to tell the story of the war through a horse’s eyes. From there, Joey was born. Turning such an epic story into a stage version is never easy. The sheer scale of the action can be lost in the confines of a theatre.
But War Horse is afflicted by no such constrictions.
Instead, it is one of the most moving, magical and unforgettable pieces of drama I have ever seen — on stage or off.
It tells the story of a young farm boy, Albert Narracott, whose alcoholic father buys a horse at an auction. Albert becomes the horse’s protector, until the underhanded Ted sells Joey to the army.
Keen to follow Joey to France, Albert signs up too, lying about his age as he’s too young to do so. What follows is Joey and Albert’s different experiences throughout the war, as Joey and his fellow horse Topthorn are passed from the British to the Germans and Albert goes from trench to trench — all the while hoping that one day he will find his friend again.
It is during the battle scenes that the lighting, sound and set designers come into their own, with many jump-out-of-yourseat moments for the audience.
Scott Miller is wonderful as Albert Narracott, capturing perfectly the vulnerability and bravery of a young boy determined to keep a promise.
But the real praise has to be reserved for the puppeteers, who truly make the horses come to life.
Every motion is perfect, down to the breathing of the horses. It is utterly captivating.
There is a reason War Horse has had more than 3,000 performances in the West End — it is spectacular, harrowing, intense but ultimately heartwarming. You must see it.