Monday, August 22, 2011

War Horse

A year or two ago I became aware of a play on the London stage, "War Horse". There were several fascinating facets to the play. The first to catch my eye was that the horses were integral characters, and the second was that they were played on the stage by people in large, ten-foot-high wooden puppets. Secondly, they play was deadly serious--that is, it was a serious story, and the audiences by all accounts were swept immediately into the lives of the horses, and their human companions, as they slogged their way though the horrors of the First World War.
The play has now made its way to a triumphal run on Broadway.
Interestingly, as far as I can tell, the play was adapted from a YA novel of the same name, written by Mark Morpurgo. It is about to take on yet another life form, as it is receiving the big screen treatment by none other than Stephen Spielberg. A preview is available online: http://war-horse-movie-trailer.blogspot.com/ . One can only hope that the real-life, bittersweet story and atmosphere of the novel come through on the screen. Having read the novel, I highly recommend it.

No comments:

Post a Comment