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War Horse

Theatre Royal, Glasgow

Five stars

 

Almost two decades have passed since the National Theatre of Great Britain’s monumental staging of Michael Morpurgo’s anti war novel first galloped into life in a heroic co-production with South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company. Since then, the horrors of battle Morpurgo depicts have become ever more pronounced, even without the horses forced to lead the charge as they were in the First World War that ripped the world asunder several times over. 

 

At the heart of this, of course, is Joey, the horse bought at market in rural Devon, and who becomes young Albert’s best friend before being sold off to the army and ending up on the frontline with a million others. Essentially what follows is a story of the bond between a boy and his horse. Beyond this, its epic rendering says something about holding on to some kind of belief system even as the bombs fall. The interplay between Joey and Tom Sturgess as Albert is genuinely moving to witness. 

 

Nick Stafford’s adaptation is brought to life in spectacular fashion in Katie Henry’s latest touring revival of Marianne Elliot and Tom Morris’s original production. This isn’t just down to the wonderful life size puppets designed by Handspring’s Adrian Kohler and operated by a tireless team of thirteen puppeteers overseen by puppetry director Matthew Forbes, with Toby Sedgwick looking after the horse choreography. 

 

While all this brings a nuanced emotional range for the horses as they navigate their way through Rae Smith’s busy bombed out set, the flash of Rob Casey’s lighting and the panoramic sweep of Adrian Sutton’s stately score, it also highlight the human heart that drives the production.

 

With more than thirty performers on stage, an entire community is brought to life through the mass chorales of John Tams’ folk songs led by a magnificent Sally Swanson as an all seeing Singer, rousing things up with accordion in hand. As Albert and Joey cling to each other as much as they cling to life itself, their bond provides a totem of hope in a world of despair throughout a still powerful production.


The Herald, March 27th 2025

 

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