As I went into the theatre I noticed that there was only a few people there, I even thought I might be in the wrong theatre, how could it not have been sold out. However I of course had come to early.Soon the theatre was jam packed with people of all ages murmuring excitedly, and who could blame them, they had after all come to see the spectacle that is warhorse. I noticed the stage, it was quite plain with only the simple thrust staging, and what looked like a giant piece of ripped paper spread up against the back black wall.This clever set almost seemed to help build up the atmosphere adding a sense of suspense to the theatre.The paper was projected on during the play showing sketches of the place the scene is set.WarHorse is about a young boy of sixteen named Albert who makes a strong bond of love and friendship with a horse named Joey,when joey is sold to the army by Alberts drunk of a father Albert takes it upon himself to lie about his age join the army, and search for his friend among the war torn trenches, A truly hart warming story of love and friendship giving an insight of the trenches and both the German and British sides.
The first scene came as a slight surprise as very suddenly a man stepped on, his clothing was typical for the countryside around the first world war. Slowly the audience were quiet. A spotlight was trained on him. He then began to sing he sang traditional english countryside folk songs, he sings different songs and plays intruments to get you into the spirit of the time period, throughout the play this happens giving it a really interesting effect of the idea of the english countyside of old being the center of this play. Of course I cannot do a review of Warhorse without mentioning what attracted so much attention to it in the first place. One major part of WarHorse is the incredible use of puppets to create horses and other animals, the horses created by a big wooden structures which have inside them all sorts of levers and triggers to make the horse move. The skill of those operating the horse is incredible so well done that half the time you really believe there is a real horse there and they have captured the movements and ways of the horses so well. In a way there is an essence of real horses on stage. The accents and characters make the play very effective and realy make the audience believe in what they are seeing. The lighting and sound effects are strong and cleverly used to invoke feelings in the audience such as fear. They are also used to create settings and events such as using bright lights and bird songs for summer, using blue and purple lights for the night, huge bright light and piercing sounds for shelling. Albert Narracott played by Matthew Aubrey an innocent farmboy who growes attached to his horse, the way the boy was portrayed showed his inoccence in the way he talks,holds himself and even in the way he laughs almost but not quite carelessly, his accent was amazing, and the bond between him and his horse can be seen proggressing slowly and incredibly realistically. I can imagine that the reason for creating WarHorse would be to show the world something new, something never been attempted before on stage, something incredible.
If someone asked me to describe WarHorse in four words, I would find it difficult to describe WarHorse the incredible masterpiece of so many different elements in only four words, but if I had to the four words would be...Masterpiece, spellbinding, beautiful, unique. What the producers set out to do was certainly completed.
Verdict
An incredible Masterpiece that I can find no fault in, proffesionally done and a unique experience that I would Recomend to any man, woman, or child .
