War Horse – Weep For Our Forgotten Heroes

“Concerning the war I say nothing…..I walk round and round this room cursing God, for allowing dumb beasts to be tortured – let him kill his human beings but – how CAN HE? – Oh, my horses!”

So wrote Edward Elgar to fellow music lover and travelling companion, Frank Schuster in 1914 and with some truth, considering that of the one million horses sent to France between 1914 and 1918, only 62,000 were returned to British soil at the end of the Great War.

Abused, tortured by events and eventually relegated to the tables of French restaurants, their story went largely untold until Michael Morpurgo inspired by a troubled child – silent until he was alone with his horse – put pen to paper. War Horse was born.

The National Theatre gave it life and Steven Spielberg immortalised Morpurgo’s work on film.

But at its core War Horse – whatever the media format - is just a great story, and because stories are the essence of what drives mankind forward, it is destined to remain one of the stage greats.

It certainly lives up to all the hype, leaving you emotionally exhausted at the end of its two and a half hour run; you feel as though you are there, living the tragedy that was the First World War in which ten million people died.

Joey is the horse and Thomas Dennis is Albert Narracott, the teen who loses his beloved beast to the military after his father, Ted, seduced by an offer of £100, sells Joey to the British Army.

And there begins the story as we witness the horse’s journey through war and torture as he finds himself a beast of burden to both the British and the Hun, until he and his beloved master are reunited in an emotional conclusion.

Before the show started I sat down next to a couple in the bar, chatting. Their accents were Southern. They had travelled from London and were there to see their son Thomas Dennis, the main ‘human’ part. They have reason to be proud of a thoroughly honest, believable performance.

And I loved Gwilym Lloyd as his father, a drinking, gambling man, said to have shirked his military duties in favour of farm work. For this he was eternally branded a coward. Lloyd was wonderful, always on the move as though he were a man with something to hide, always taking refuge in the bottle.

As Morpurgo said, War Horse is a story of reconciliation and reunion. There is the father who inadvertently sends his son to war in search of the horse he should not have sold, the German soldier and English Tommy who shake hands after jointly freeing Joey from barbed wire and the German officer who protects a French woman and her daughter from near death.

Everyone suffered in the Great War and War Horse summarises the ubiquitous pain that permeated every corner of mankind, so poignantly. It does not take sides, a triumph in itself.

You will love Joey and weep for the life size puppet creation that so brilliantly brings him to life with more wizardry than the magic of a Jewish golem dispute.

For fear of waxing lyrical, this is a show for theatre goers, story tellers and horse lovers. It is for anyone with a soul, a conscience or a bitter dispute to settle because, at final curtain, you will be reminded that we are not on this planet for long and that life is just too short for stupidity, which man, somehow, has in spades.

War Horse
Bradford Alhambra
Until 10 March 2018