THEATER REVIEW: RBTL’s “War Horse”

The touring production of “War Horse,” which runs through Sunday
at the Auditorium Theatre, brings one of the most distinctive Broadway events
of recent years to Rochester.

“War Horse” started as a popular young people’s book by Michael Morpurgo, then became a play by
Nick Stafford for the National Theatre of Great Britain, which produced it in
an extravagantly and irresistibly theatrical style. This version has been a
continuing success in England, Canada, and on Broadway, where it won five Tony
Awards in 2011. (“War Horse” was also successfully adapted for the movies by
Steven Spielberg.)

The story begins in Thomas Hardy-ish
fashion: just before World War I, a British farmer named Ted Narracott (Gene Gillette) spends his mortgage money to buy
a beautiful thoroughbred horse at auction – mainly to spite his wealthy brother
(Andrew Long), who also wants it. The horse is skittish and unsuited to farm
life, until Narracott’s son Albert (Michael Wyatt
Cox) takes charge of him, training him, naming him Joey, and forging a bond of
affection that doesn’t exist between son and father.

When World War I breaks out, Narracott
sells Joey to the Army for 100 pounds, to Albert’s despair. The boy runs away
from home, lies about his age, and joins the military, determined to see his
beloved horse again. Joey undergoes some horrific adventures in wartime France
and Belgium, as does Albert, and I suppose it’s not really a spoiler to say
that … well, the story has a happy, and tear-inducing, ending.

“War Horse” knits text, music, sound effects, lighting, and all
the other tools of theater to remarkable effect. The large cast is in constant
movement, whether several of them are playing a marauding tank on a battlefield
or one of them is a bad-tempered goose in a farmyard, and they are deployed as
skillfully as soldiers in battle (actually, they’re deployed much more
skillfully than most soldiers were in World War I). The stage is essentially
bare, with set pieces brought in to suggest farmhouses or battlefields; the
action is enhanced by projections on a white surface that spans the stage above
the actors’ heads and resembles a torn piece of paper.

The actors (there are more than 30 in the cast, many playing
multiple roles) are excellent, but most will agree that the stars of “War
Horse” are the members of Handspring Puppet Company, who play the various
horses in the tale, including Joey as a foal and Joey fully grown (his
appearance as a grown horse is a thrilling surprise, the very definition of
“theatricality”). The horses are wondrously complicated-looking constructions,
each one operated by several Handspring performers. (Working for Handspring
Puppet Company is surely the coolest job ever.) Once the story gets into gear,
you really don’t see the performers — but you do think you are watching real
horses, so carefully detailed are their movements, reactions, and noises. Joey
doesn’t say a word in the show, but he gets some of the audience’s biggest
reactions just by flicking his tail or moving his head.

Most people probably go to “War Horse” to see the horses, but much
of the show is devoted to a stunningly stylized portrayal of World War I
battles, skirmishes, attacks, and alarums. World War I is still unrivalled for
sheer human destruction, and long stretches of “War Horse” display the chaos
and brutality of battle. (The production reaches some epic noise levels and
includes numerous sudden gunshots, so be prepared for that when you go.)

I started watching “War Horse” drawn in by the craft and
imagination displayed on stage from the first minute. But by the end, when the
epic story is resolved in a simple tableau, I was as moved as seemingly everybody
else in the audience. For all its theatrical brilliance, “War Horse” is a
simple, affecting show.

This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2013.