War Horse - Review

Having seen this I am not surprised it has been a huge sell out hit in England. It is the most moving production I have perhaps ever seen. This production is a masterpiece in so many ways.
War Horse is based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo and as some of you will be aware, it has also been made into a film.  I found this production was far more intense, seeing it live you felt more involved with the horror of war.
It is just before World War 1 and Joey (a foal) is brought into the world. He is sold to a poor Devonshire farmer (Ted) who bought it just to annoy his brother.  Albert, Ted's son, has to teach the horse to plough in order to keep it. The First World War starts and Joey is sold to the Army. Albert, can't bare to be apart from Joey and enlists even though he is too young. The story follows Albert and Joey's path through the war.
The production is fast paced and moves from Ted and Roses farm in England to France and back again a few times. To help cement the story Rae Smith (Sets, Costumes and Drawings) used technology to his advantage. He produced a long cloud which went the length of the stage. This acted as a backdrop to what was happening on the stage. Sometimes it was the sky, other times it was a sketch of the landscape, or an impression of war. It was a simple idea but extremely effective. It was mainly black and white too, giving the piece an age. The music and sound effects were also superb. When one of the first shots were fired, people we so taken in I heard people gasp and even a few swear words escaped the shocked audience.  The use of old English folk music, or at least that style I also enjoyed and help add to the mood.  There was some humour, which mainly came from the farm goose, which was one of the puppets. The horses and the birds were puppets too. The way these animals moved was spellbinding. There were several scenes with the horses, when the stage was quite dark so you couldn't really see the puppeteers and you could almost think that there were real horses on the stage.  They really brought the animals alive, even giving them characters of their own.  Not all the horses were the same and way the age of the different horse or their fitness was translated in the puppets was very well thought out.
The only slight issue I had was with the accents, they were a little all over the place especially the English ones. Even the German and French accents were not as strong as they could have been. But, everything else was so brilliant that this really paled into insignificance.
The production really showed the both the inhumanity of war and the occasions of compassion, towards others and the animals. As the story mainly follows Joey, you are struck by the realisation of how terrifying war must be for an animal and how their instinct for survival can be as strong as a humans.  You are also left with the sorrow which comes with war, of how many lives were wasted, animal and human.
You must see this and don't worry you won't leave feeling depressed, you will leave feeling like you have seen something very special indeed.