War Horse is a stage play by Nick Stafford and the Handspring Puppet Company

The original text

Telling the story of a boy and his horse, the play takes audiences on a journey from the fields of rural Devon to the trenches of First World War France. It is based on the 1982 children's novel[1] of that name by English author, poet, playwright, and librettist Michael Morpurgo (1943- ) [2], and was adapted for the stage by the British playwright and writer Nick Stafford (1959-) [3], 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.

The stage play opened at the National Theatre, London, in 2007, directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, with puppets designed, constructed and directed by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler. 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[4]).

After its opening was seen millions of people worldwide, as the production played on London’s West End for more than six years, 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 has also played in Toronto and Berlin (the latter in the German version).

Translations and adaptations

The text has been translated into and perfored 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.