An Amazing Presentation

“Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people. ” 
― W.C. Fields

     Yesterday I went to the Modern in Fort Worth to see the National Theater Production of the stage play of  "War Horse" which had been filmed in London. What a marvelous production! The stage play is from the book "War Horse" written by Michael Morpurgo and made into a Steven Spielberg movie.

Book Cover

     I had seen the movie on Netflix not long ago and thought I had read the book, but in the film yesterday, after the intermission, the London theater had interviewed the author of the book and the director of the play.  The book was written in 1982, but not until Spielberg picked it up and made a movie of it in 2011, did it become well-known.  When the author told of making Joey the horse the narrator of the story, I realized I have not read it, so now I think I am going to have to add it to my "to read" list.

        The play would be wonderful to see, but the film of it was a very close facsimile! The truly spectacular thing is that the horses are all life size puppets!  I am going to give you a couple of You Tube links so you can see a bit of the wonder of it all.  And one link goes into the making of the film and the explanation of how the horse "works". Just click on the blue lettering and that should take you to the links.  There are many more out there on You Tube if you are interested.

Advertisement for the National Theater Production

     It is difficult to fathom how one can get so emotionally wrapped up in a play with puppets, but it is so well done, you forget that the horses ARE puppets, and you don't even see the men who are the puppeteers! And not just the action of the horses, but also the singing...an Irish tenor/like voice..that comes in at various times throughout the play, and the other characters.  I don't know where you can see the film...I'm sure it is somewhere to be seen on tv...just Google it!