War Horse Charges the Ahmanson

By Staff Report June 10, 2012

After winning hearts in London and New York (where it also won five 2011 Tony Awards, including Best Play), “War Horse” is coming to Southern California. The play begins performances at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles on June 14 and has its official opening on June 29, running through July 29, at which point the production embarks on a national roadshow.

The moving story of a farm horse turned cavalry mount in WW I was also a 2011 feature film from Steven Spielberg, and while the actors, both human and equine, were lauded for fine performances, the play has something the movie does not: the amazing spectacle of life-sized steeds created by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company. The puppets actually “gallop” onstage with actors astride.

Each driven by two human puppeteers, the emoting by these hand-crafted art-pieces of cane and cloth will take your breath away. Each puppet has 20 major joints, used to convey incredibly lifelike action. The details get a lot of attention. In fact, breath is a key component of drawing a performance “Breath is really important for us. It’s the thing that distinguishes a puppet from an actor. Puppets always have to try to be alive,” Handspring’s Adrian Kohler says.

“A puppet only lives if the audience believes it. An actor struggles to die onstage, but a puppet struggles to live.” To which company co-founder Basil Jones adds, “We call it emotional engineering, created using up-to-the minute 17th century technology.” (Well, there is a bit of aluminum framing, too).

To see War Horse is “to believe,” propelled along largely by the heart and drama of the Michael Morpurgo novel, the story follows the fate of Joey, sold from his farm home in England and shipped to the front France. Joey is caught in enemy crossfire and ends up serving on both sides of before landing in no man’s land.

His former owner, Albert, not old enough to enlist, embarks on a treacherous mission to find his beloved companion and bring him home. The tale of courage, loyalty and friendship has been called “both epic and intimate.” (Bring tissues!) An estimated 8 million horses died during the war (which resulted in more than 35 million military and civilian human casualties, making it among the deadliest conflicts in history).

“It was important to me to write a story about the universal suffering of that war,” Morpurgo said of the story, which he was inspired to write after seeing photographs of “horses charging into barbed wire” during WW I.

“The idea of seeing the war through the eyes of an animal, the neutrality of an animal that didn’t make judgments, is what appealed to me,” Kohler said. The challenges of telling a story visually via a lead character that does not speak are quite substantial, and fell to Nick Stafford, who adapted the novel.

But Handspring and the puppeteers ― three of them onstage to bring each equine to life ―rose to the occasion. With 20 major joints, the horses are capable of fluid motion, but emotion is conveyed “through the tail and ears, because that’s how horses usually express themselves,” Jones says.

Onstage at the Ahmanson, the puppets are joined by a cast of more than 30 actors is led by Andrew Veenstra as Albert, and directed by Bijan Sheibani.

“War Horse” received its world premiere in a limited engagement at the National’s Olivier Theatre in 2007. The play returned to the National Theatre for a second run playing from in 2008-2009 before transferring to the West End’s New London Theatre in Spring 2009 where it continues to play an open-ended run.

“War Horse” has been seen by almost 2 million people worldwide. The play’s U.S. stops will include San Francisco, Philadelphia, Dallas and Minneapolis, for a total of 20 cities. The play is also charging ahead to Australia, Japan, South Africa and Berlin, as well as hitting the road in the U.K.

Albert's beloved farm horse is drafted into battle in "War Horse." (Photo by Brinkhoff/Mögenburg)

Preview the onstage action at WarHorseOnstage.com. Tickets are available at CenterTheatreGroup.org, by calling (213) 972-4400 or at the Ahmanson box office.

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