sidewalker

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Posted 3 weeks ago — 393 notes

nparts:

Theatre review: War Horse gallops off to victory
The transforming moment in War Horse — transforming in every sense — comes about 20 minutes in. Joey, the title horse, changes before our eyes from foal to full-grown stallion. It would be unfair to reveal exactly how, but up until this point Joey has been a life-size skeletal puppet, visibly manipulated by three performers whom it is sometimes confusingly easy to mistake for characters in the story; stable hands perhaps?

The puppeteers are still in evidence when Joey grows up, but they’re now so disposed that we can tune them out. For the rest of the evening we believe in Joey as an actual horse, even while remaining happily aware that he’s a product of theatrical wizardry. The magic is manifold. The technical peak coincides with an emotional peak. And that synergy, of spectacle and feeling, keeps going throughout the show.

Head or tail: Giving life to the War Horse
When audiences see Joey full-grown for the first time, galloping to the front of the stage, its paper mane and tail flapping like streamers, they applaud like children at a circus. These horses neigh and nuzzle. They rear and fall.

Theatregoers are witnessing a magic trick, a feat of the imagination. For when the two people controlling the horse from the inside and the one manipulating its head are in synch, the puppeteers disappear. However, when they are not connected, when there is a misstep, a break in the rhythm, the audience very quickly sees three grown men trying to operate an equine skeleton. (Photos: Courtesy of Mirvish)

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Posted 2 months ago — 61 notes