Within the first few moments of War Horse, you are already completely invested in the life of the young foal who prances before you. War Horse is an amazing mix of technical brilliance, as well as a truly heart warming and gripping tale of hope and love. The play starts out with the auction of the young horse to the main character’s drunkard father. A scared foal runs about the pen created by the cast holding up sections of fence while also pretending to lean and lounge on them. To me this first scene was really just a preview of the entire show. Just by analyzing this first scene, you can almost instantly understand why War Horse has become such a success.
One of the first things I noticed about the show was the super effective use of minimal scenery throughout the play. The stage design for the show is just so impressive, yet at the same time so simple and understated. Besides a hung projection above the stage that shifted and changed as the story progressed, giving away dates and changing times, the rest of the scenery was seamlessly carried on and off by actors. It was amazing how little scenery was needed to explain to the audience just what was happening and where the characters were. Just a little barbed wire here, a few posts there. It was all it took to take me to a new place.
Another aspect of the play was beautifully done was the music and sound. All the songs were performed by a single narrator character who had such an amazingly sweet and powerful voice. As I looked around me, it was the music of the play that really got the tears flowing. At the climax of the piece with Joey entangled and bombs and gunfire all around, it was the swelling music that really pulled on the audience’s heartstrings. From the booming of the gunshots, to the neighing of the horses, or the sweet melodies of sung verses, it was obvious that audio played an important part in this production.
The last two aspects about the play I’m going to talk about are the most obvious, one of them being the acting. While I am certainly no expert on acting, I have to say I found the actors to be very convincing. I wasn’t in love in any one actor’s performance, but rather found them good as a company. I admit however, I often got distracted from the actors because I was watching the true stars of the show, the Puppets and the Puppeteers.
This brings me to my final point, the Puppets. I really feel that while the rest of the show was beautifully done it would be nothing without the beautiful puppets that cross its stage. As I said when I first started, within the first few moments of the play you were already invested, because while only a puppet and three people stood in front of you, it took you only minutes to forget that what was in front of you wasn’t a real breathing, running, neighing horse. The beautiful and intricate construction of the puppets partnered with the absolute talent of the puppeteers controlling them made true magic on the stage. The horses breathed, whimpered, and lived (not to mention carried other actors around) The more I watched, the more and more I was mesmerized by these creatures, not being able to look away, watching how joints moved, how the puppets were controlled and realizing quickly how focused and concentrated the puppeteers must have been.
Overall the show was beautiful for so many reasons and I would suggest this show to anyone as it a masterpiece.
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