Stage

So it’s a particularly fitting time for War Horse – the multi award-winning play based on Michael Morpurgo’s best-selling novel about a horse caught up in the battlefields of France – to arrive in town.

At the heart of the dazzling theatrical production are life-sized puppets bringing breathing, galloping horses to life on stage.

Tom Morris, co-director of the powerful National Theatre production, now a hit worldwide, says the idea came about when two very different trains of thought accidentally crossed over.

“The first arose from a desire I had to work with Handspring Puppets, having seen their work in a show at Battersea Arts Centre which had a completely captivating hyena at the centre of the production. Since then, I had followed their work, thinking that at some stage there would be a way to harness this magnetic quality of their puppetry design in a larger-scale show.

“When I moved to the National Theatre in 2004, they were on my list of people to try to collaborate with. I went to South Africa with Nick Starr (executive director of the National Theatre) to see a show they’d made about a giraffe. I was all for trying to rework that show, rework the narrative around the giraffe and create something we could invite to play at the National. Nick Starr thought it was too complex and challenging and suggested it would be better to start working with Handspring from scratch.”

And here’s the second train of thought.

“At the same time, National Theatre director Nick Hytner had asked us to come up with ideas for large-scale shows that would appeal to adults and children. I’d been told about Michael Morpurgo’s stories by director and designer Julian Crouch, who said Michael understood the First World War very well and suggested I read a book called Private Peaceful.”

When Tom discovered War Horse, he knew this was a story “tailor made for Handspring to make a puppet for”. He also knew early on that, even though this was to be a show for mixed age audiences, it was important that the horse shouldn’t talk.

“One of the great things about the book was the insight it gave into the First World War. We wanted to treat the subject with the seriousness it deserved,” says Tom.

He says the appeal of the production is largely down to it feeling “unfamiliar”.

“It attempted to do something that hadn’t been done before. From our point of view it was a massive counter-intuitive experiment; to put a puppet in a central role, to try and tell a story which synthesised script, movement, music, design and puppetry, to say nothing of lighting and sound design as well.

Tom credits Michael Morpurgo with being “an ongoing sounding board”.

“He’s been incredibly graceful and generous. Whenever we’ve wanted our rehearsal rooms to get to hear first-hand the story that inspired the whole project, he would come and talk to the company,” says Tom.

War Horse runs at the Alhambra from May 26 to June 14. For tickets, ring (01274) 432000.