Festival Theatre, Edinburgh – until 11 october 2025
Reviewed by Marcus Richardson
5*****
I first saw War Horse on stage in 2014, during a school trip down to London, and I’ve probably spoken about that experience every year since. Not because of the production, but because I was sat two rows behind Liza Minelli who was surrounded by rows of empty seats. Pointless bit of information, but I tell it to give some context about my new feeling of shame that in my retelling of this story the focus was always on Liza, not the show I was seeing. Allow me to try and capture how impressive War Horse was, and still is.
Back when I was young, I found the visual storytelling of war horse to be incredible, a true mastery of the use of puppets, and staging. Now 11 years later it dawned on me how incredible War Horse is as a piece of theatre.
Originally adapted to the stage by Nick Stafford, from the Book written by Michael Morpurgo. The 2007 National Theatre production has shown itself to stand the test of time and the ever changing landscape of the arts. While nearly 20 years old the play still feels fresh, exciting and innovative.
The story of War Horse is one of unbreakable bonds, hope and of course, a devastating war. Set just before and during World War One, we follow a horses journey onto the front line of the trenches, and his owners mission to reunite with him. Let me just warn you that I cried during both acts, even before the war broke out.
I would find it impossible to talk about the puppets, and the actors separately. The horses themselves were just as animated as the actors portraying characters within the story. Our main characters are Albert Narracott, Tom Sturgess, and his ever faithful steed, Joey, played collaboratively by; Rianna Ash, Elouise Beaumont-Wood, Felicity Donnelly, Thomas Goodridge, Robin Hayward, Michael Larcombe, Matthew Lawrence, Clara Lioe, Lewis McBean, Chris Milford, Jordan Paris, Tea Poldervaart, Tom Quinn, Gun Suen, and – last but not least – Rafe Young. This team are responsible for all the puppetry within the show, from Joey to his comrade Topthorn. Each horse had their own personality and you could visibly see the effect war had on them. Adrian Kohler who designed the puppets made each horse look exquisite, there is one horse which broke my heart, that almost looked skeletal and quite haunting. Sturgess who played Albert brought this wonderful energy to the performance, you truly felt warmed during the events of the play by his air of optimism. Captain Friedrich Müller, Alexander Ballinger, helps bring the complexity of war to the show, a character hesitant to kill, his performance highlights the struggles people face when forced into combat, it felt equally depressing and warming. Overall there was no wrong choices with the cast everyone did a phenomenal job of bring this story to life under the direction of Tom Morris and Katie Henry, other standout performances were given by Jo Castleton as Rose Narracott, and Gareth Radcliffe as Arthur Narracott, Daniel Rock as Captain Stewart, and Sally Swanson as the Singer.
The current UK tour only has 3 venues left, Edinburgh’s Festival theatre until the 11th, Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre 15th-25th October, and finally ending at the Norwich Theatre Royal from the 28th Oct to the 8th of November.
War Horse is an emotional journey that does contain distressing imagery, loud sounds, and at times total darkness. While I don’t believe any of this to be out of place or done poorly, it could cause some mild discomfort to those with sensory issues.