Review: War Horse, Hippodrome

Why is it that we complain about being ‘manipulated’ by something that makes us weep, when we don’t object to being made to laugh, which is just as powerful an emotional response? Maybe there is still something shameful about crying in public, even when the lights are down.

War Horse is a major weep-fest, a full 15-tissue experience that pushes all the buttons. But it’s uplifting rather than gloomy. There are even a few laughs – including a great comedy goose.

On the one hand it’s the story of Joey the Dorset horse who, at the outbreak of World War One, is sold to the Cavalry and shipped to Europe. He serves on both sides of the conflict in the course of an extraordinary journey before finally finding himself alone and under fire in no man’s land.

Bristol Old Vic Theatre School alumnus Simon Victor as Captain Stewart, on his horse Topthorn

But it’s also about Albert Narracott (played here by an excellent Thomas Dennis), Joey’s devoted owner. Despite being too young to enlist, Albert resolves to do anything to find the horse he loves, and so embarks on his own adventure. The prevailing themes in War Horse are friendship, loyalty and humanity, but it’s also a love story.

In Michael Morpurgo’s original children’s novel the story is told from Joey`s perspective, but what makes this National Theatre production fly is the way it is staged and performed. The full-size horses are brought to life by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company – but to even call them puppets diminishes their achievement. They snort, gallop, charge, rear with joy and pain and die on the battlefield. They are totally convincing characters. The audience cares about them as much as any human on stage.

There’s also song – and some extremely evocative images projected onto a bold slash of a screen that runs across the whole width of the stage.

This should go some way to explain why, in the ten years since it was first created as a National Theatre experiment, War Horse has become so phenomenally successful. Following eight record-breaking years in the West End, the show has played in 11 countries to more than 7 million people.

After the opening night’s standing ovation Tom Morris (artistic director of Bristol Old Vic, and one of the stage show’s two original creators) strolled onstage to deliver a speech that was, if anything, even more inspiring and emotional than the play we’d just watched. I can’t do it justice, but he ended by asking the cast to give the audience a round of applause. Because, he explained, it was our imagination that was equally responsible for turning these “bits of wood and canvas” into living, breathing horses – and that we should never stop celebrating the power of the imagination.

Don’t worry about how you’ll look when the lights come up. Open yourself up to everything War Horse delivers, and enjoy every tear shed.

War Horse continues at the Hippodrome until Saturday, November 11. For more info and to book tickets, visit www.atgtickets.com/shows/war-horse/bristol-hippodrome

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