War Horse is a stage play by Nick Stafford (1959-)[1] and the Handspring Puppet Company

The original text

The play is based on the children's novel War Horse[2] by English author, poet, playwright, and librettist Michael Morpurgo (1943- ) [3], first published in Great Britain by Kaye & Ward in 1982. It tells the story of Joey, a horse bought by the Army for service in World War I in France, and the attempts by 15 year old Albert, his previous owner, to bring him safely home.

The stage adaptation was done by the British playwright and writer Nick Stafford (1959-) [4], in association with the Handspring Puppet Company. The piece was conceived and performed as a large scale production, utilizing life-sized horses built and manipulated by South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company team.

It opened at the National Theatre, London, on 17 October, 2007, directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, with puppets designed, constructed and directed by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler. It was revived in 2008, and transferred to the New London Theatre on 28 March 2009. After its opening was seen millions of people worldwide, as the production played on London’s West End for more than six years, then undertook major tours of the UK, North America (receiving five Tony Awards, plus a special Tony Award for the Handspring Puppet Company while on Broadway), Australia, the Netherlands and Ireland. It also played in Berlin in the German version in 2013.

In 2014 War Horse finally came to South Africa. According to the London producer, Chris Harper, "every single puppet used in War Horse is hand-crafted by Handspring Puppet Company in Cape Town, so bringing the show to South Africa is a particularly special moment in the history of this show." (Cited in the Handspring Puppet Company Newsletter April 2014[5]).

Translations and adaptations

The text has been translated into and performed in German as Gefährten ("Companions").

In 2011 War Horse was made into a film, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo and the stage play by Nick Stafford, with a screenplay written by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis.[ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568911/]

Performance history in South Africa

2014: The South African première of the Nick Stafford stage adaptation, presented by Pieter Toerien, Rand Merchant Bank and The National Theatre of Great Britain, in association with Handspring Puppet Company, opened at Montecasino’s Teatro in Johannesburg 22 October (season running from October to November). Production team for South Africa: Alex Sims - the director who also worked in several productions in Great Britain; Katie Henry, the associate director and she also worked in several productions; Craig Leo - the puppetry associate, is a puppeteer, performer and designer and who was apprenticed to South Africa circus guru Keith Anderson and trained with Zip Zap Circus; Matthew Forbes - the assistant puppetry director trained in Speech and Drama; William Fricker - associate set designer; Johanna Coe associate costume designer; Terry Davies - music director is a winning composer and conductor; Matthew Gough - music associate trained in Britain; Karen Spahn - associate lighting designer; John Owens - associate sound designer; Tom Snell - lighting associate /programmer; Jonathan Lyle - video associate/programmer; Jacquie Crago company voice work and dialect coach is also an actor and director; Paul Benzing - fight director; Company Manager Cal Hawes, Stage manager - Jayson Gray.