{"id":1020333,"date":"2026-06-11T19:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1020333\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T19:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:12:18","slug":"review-war-horse-at-olivier-national-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1020333\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: War Horse, at Olivier, National Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Tom Sturgess in War Horse [Brinkhoff-Moegenburg]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>WAR Horse premiered at the National in October 2007, adapted from Michael Morpurgo\u2019s novel by Nick Stafford and co-directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris.<\/p>\n<p>It was an instant success, inspiring Steven Spielberg\u2019s acclaimed film, and has reached an audience of over 8.8 million worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>This revival (co-directed by Katie Henry and Morris) is first-rate, stunningly staged and utterly immersive.<\/p>\n<p>Ted Narracott (Stephen Beckett), a drunken Devonshire farmer, buys a foal at an auction for an inflated price to outwit his brother Arthur (Nicholas Khan). Ted\u2019s son Albert (Tom Sturgess) names him Joey, breaks him in, and the two forge a tight bond.<\/p>\n<p>With the outbreak of the First World War, Ted sells Joey to a captain in the cavalry.<\/p>\n<p>Albert is inconsolable and eventually follows his beloved horse to the front line by enlisting as an underage soldier.<\/p>\n<p>Joey is paired with another horse, Topthorn, and we follow the tumult of the war, much of it conveyed through their perspectives. The British cavalry is mown down by superior firearms, and the pair endure shelling, barbed wire and bullets before being forced to pull heavy artillery through the mud.<\/p>\n<p>The life-sized horses from Handspring Puppet Company are memorable creations, with 12 puppeteers working in rotation. Toby Sedgwick\u2019s choreography and Matthew Forbes\u2019s puppetry direction ensure they move with clockwork precision, from the swish of a tail to the flick of an ear.<\/p>\n<p>War Horse is impeccably acted and beautifully realised by an exceptional artistic team: Rae Smith\u2019s set, costumes and drawings; Rob Casey\u2019s lighting; and 59 Studio\u2019s animations are projected through a rip in the back wall. John Tams\u2019s songs add atmosphere, while the late Adrian Sutton\u2019s score heightens both tension and emotion.<\/p>\n<p>Spellbinding.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Until July 30<\/strong><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaltheatre.org.uk\/home\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>nationaltheatre.org.uk\/<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Sturgess in War Horse [Brinkhoff-Moegenburg] WAR Horse premiered at the National in October 2007, adapted from Michael&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,55607,18394,18395,2764,16,15,18396],"class_list":["post-1020333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-london","tag-lucy-popescu","tag-the-camden-new-journal","tag-the-islington-tribune","tag-theatre","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-west-end-extra"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116733067403819684","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}