![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This evening I went to see War Horse at Lincoln Center. I first heard about it when it played in London in 2007 but I didn't get to see it there. Then Mary Robinette Kowal began to talk about it and I looked up the video trailer back in December and immediately bought tickets.
It lived up to all my expectations. Basically, it's about an English farm boy and his horse --they're separated when the horse is taken overseas for the cavalry in France. It's also about the horrors of war (it begins a couple of years before the outbreak of WWI)and its toll on everyone involved.
The puppetry is of course brilliant. The two main horses have distinct body movements (one is a thoroughbred, one 1/2 thoroughbred/half hunter) and personalities and the performances must be grueling. I've been told that the people working the horses had to learn to breathe together so that the movements and breathing of the horses matched up. Incredible artistry. A backdrop is used to augment the stage area, sometimes showing pastoral scenery, sometimes views of war, sometimes explosions which also occur on stage. It's surprisingly realistic and forces the experiences of WWI onto the audience.
The live music played and sung throughout is exquisite and melancholy.
It's moving and heartrending.
The play is based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo.
If I could afford it and had the time, I think I'd go see it again.
It lived up to all my expectations. Basically, it's about an English farm boy and his horse --they're separated when the horse is taken overseas for the cavalry in France. It's also about the horrors of war (it begins a couple of years before the outbreak of WWI)and its toll on everyone involved.
The puppetry is of course brilliant. The two main horses have distinct body movements (one is a thoroughbred, one 1/2 thoroughbred/half hunter) and personalities and the performances must be grueling. I've been told that the people working the horses had to learn to breathe together so that the movements and breathing of the horses matched up. Incredible artistry. A backdrop is used to augment the stage area, sometimes showing pastoral scenery, sometimes views of war, sometimes explosions which also occur on stage. It's surprisingly realistic and forces the experiences of WWI onto the audience.
The live music played and sung throughout is exquisite and melancholy.
It's moving and heartrending.
The play is based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo.
If I could afford it and had the time, I think I'd go see it again.