Review: “War Horse” Combines Brilliant Stagecraft With A Melodramatic Plot

Topthorn and Joey are the primary reason to check out the spectacular “War Horse” at The Paramount. Photo by Brinkhoff/Mögenburg
2011 London Cast

Review: “War Horse” based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo. Adapted by Nick Stafford in association with Handspring Puppet Company. Originally Produced by the National Theatre of Great Britain. Presented locally by Seattle Theatre Group and Seattle Repertory Theatre. Director of Movement and Horse Choreography by Toby Sedgwick. Original direction by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris. US Tour direction by Bijan Sheibani. With Andrew Veenstra, Andrew May, Lavita Shaurice, Jason Loughlin, and Angela Reed. Now through February 24 at The Paramount.

Many people love war stories and many more people adore horse stories so naturally a book/play/movie called “War Horse” has a captive audience at hand eager to devour a tale that encompasses two favorite passions. Personally, I’m not much of a fan of war stories, (unless it includes plucky nurses avoiding capture from menacing Nazis, Huns or Klingons) and horses frankly scare me. Yet, “War Horse” the monstrously successful stage adaptation of a children’s novel of the same name by Michael Morpurgo (which subsequently became a Steven Spielberg film) is an enormously powerful piece of stagecraft that is superbly crafted, designed and directed by an army of very talented craftsmen and designers. The story of a plucky horse, the plucky English boy who tames said horse only to lose horse to the horrors of World War One and the subsequent adventures of the plucky pair, “War Horse” utilizes astounding puppetry, choreography, lighting, sound, filmed effects and music to create a lush cinematic tapestry. It’s not only a period piece and one that spans a long period of time, it must also successfully create the horrors of trench warfare and do so with life sized puppets of adult horses as primary characters. “War Horse” is breathtakingly good stagecraft and it’s very difficult to not leave the theater impressed with its scope, its passion and its dedication to the craft of making theater come alive.

“War Horse” has only one fault…a melodramatic plot that consistently manages to emotionally manipulate the audience with a non-stop barrage of simplistic plot twists that always involve said plucky horse in some sort of mortal danger. Yes, it’s based on a children’s novel and yes, it’s family friendly entertainment but the juvenile storyline isn’t equal to the expensive stagecraft used to tell the story. Would it really hurt “War Horse” to be a tad more sophisticated and have a plot that’s more involved than, “Oh no! Will plucky horse and plucky English lad be reunited by the end of the play?!?!?” Or, to have characters that aren’t such cardboard caricatures? Every character is either noble or obtuse; you know you have a problem when the horses are the most developed characters in the story. And, the overly emotional and manipulative ending of the play is ridiculous. Yes, you will cry, but some of you will feel a bit dirty about it afterward.

That being said, “War Horse” is still a theater experience worth seeing solely for the spectacle which obscures the bareness of the plot. Every element is well done: the costumes, lighting, sound, music, video projections, etc , but obviously the main attraction of “War Horse” is the brilliantly designed and executed horse puppets from Handspring Puppet Company and specifically, Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones with “horse choreography” from Toby Sedgwick. The horses, (there are three primary horse characters: Joey, the lead “War Horse” and Topthorn and Coco) and it takes three actors to perform each character, two inside the frame of the horse, and one at the head of the horse to manipulate that movement. The actors playing the human characters are quite good, with Andrew Veenstra particularly effective as the plucky lad, Albert, but the star performances belong to the  15 actors who must be talented actors and expert at physical movement, but very physically fit as well to work the puppets and bear the weight of the puppet frames AND the other human actors who ride the horses. It’s an impressive set of performances from the entire horse/actor troupe (who rotate in roles) and they all deserve to be mentioned: Laurabeth Breya, Catherine Gowl, Nick LaMedica, Brian Robert Burns, Jessica Krueger, Rob Laqui, Christopher Mai, Gregory Manley, Patrick Osteen, Jon Riddleberger, Derek Statton, Danny Yoerges, Danny Beiruti, Aaron Haskell, and Jon Hoche. We doubt any of these young performers dreamed of theater stardom occasionally playing the rear end of a horse, but they have nothing to be ashamed of…it’s far better to be nobly performing as an adorable horsey in “War Horse” than being cast as a human in a crappy Kathie Lee Gifford musical.

Who’s It For?

The entire family. (Note: might be too intense for very young children.) Horse lovers. Lovers of stage spectacle. Puppet freaks.

Who’s It Not For?

Anyone overly demanding when it comes to strong original plot or character development.