WAR HORSE - Review and photos by Joe Calleri

What:                                        WAR HORSE                  

Venue and Dates:                   The Arts Centre, Melbourne Season: Dec 23, 2012 to March 3, 2013
Reviewer:                                 Joe Calleri
Stars:                                         4

Move over Phar Lap, Makybe Diva, and Black Caviar! A new equine hero has arrived in Melbourne to tear at your heart (and purse) strings. Finally, the all-conquering, multi-award winning, box office busting, War Horse, snorts, gallops and rears onto the Melbourne Arts Centre stage.

Based on the 1982 children’s book by the same name by British author, Michael Morpurgo, the relatively straightforward love / obsession story is easily condensed – In Devon, 1912, a boy (Albert) meets and falls in love with a part thoroughbred, part draught horse (Joey), the horse is sold by Albert’s father to the British army and goes to World War One, boy follows horse to war, horse is injured, boy is injured, both survive and meet again, happy, tender ending ensues.

Countless movies and television programs including National Velvet, My Friend Flicka, Lassie, The Littlest Hobo, Flipper, The Lone Ranger, even Skippy, to name a few, are examples of the seemingly perennially popular buddy / animal / creature genre. Let’s face it: most of us own, love and communicate with, our pets.

So, where does War Horse fit in to this latter genre? Well, given that, the on-stage horses are wonderfully devised, constructed and realised creatures, manipulated by several highly skilful puppeteers, we can file this production under a new buddy / creature genre – just like E.T, and, I predict, 2013’s King Kong.  

The true stars of this production are the unseen technical wizards who through their skill, hard work and wonderfully slavish attention to detail have created these wonderful, life-size, life-like horses (when the horses are on-stage, you quickly forget the human presence), and the remarkably versatile back drop that resembles a roughly torn page from a sketch book, that screens beautifully drawn animations, including thunderous, dramatic battle scenes.

But, for all of its marvellous technical virtues, and, sadly, like most modern blockbusters, War Horse suffers in two key areas.

When visual spectacle becomes the producer’s god, expect story and characterisations to be put in the back seat and told to sit down and be quiet. The resulting story is, therefore, conventional and delivered in an easy to follow and linear, entree comes before main meal manner. Some audience members may leave the theatre with that slightly uneasy feeling that, they have seen and heard this story before, only told in a different context.  

Then there are the human characters, broad stereotypes that do not alter throughout the production. The outcome of this stereotyping is, in my view, often embarrassing: the British soldiers are good, heroic, stiff upper lips types, fighting nobly while on horseback with their swords drawn, while the German soldiers are cruel and barbaric fighting as they do with their nasty machine guns, barbed wire, planes, and tear gas.

So, while the horse puppets will prove a huge hit with audiences and provide the gee whiz factor that 21st century audiences so desperately crave, for all its visual impact and splendour, it’s unlikely this show will survive in your memory like, say, a Mary Poppins.