THEATRE NEWS:
Inside the War Horse
19 SEPT/11

JOHN COULBOURN,
QMI Agency



TORONTO - Mirvish Productions unveiled the key element — a horse name Joey, pictured above — of the National Theatre of Great Britain’s production of the award-winning play WAR HORSE at the Bell TIFF Lightbox in Toronto yesterday.

The play, which is slated for a Canadian première at the Princess of Wales Theatre in February, is based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo and as adapted by Nick Stafford tells the story of a horse named Joey and the young man who follows him to France, after the horse is shipped there as part of the British cavalry during the First World War.

The story is told with the help of life-sized equine puppets created by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company — established by Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones in 1981. Created in Handspring’s Capetown studios, Joey and his stablemates were then animated in a series of four intensive workshops at the National’s London studios. In the photo, Joey is led on stage by handler/puppeteer David Emmings, while two other puppeteers work inside the puppet, manipulating everything from his tail to his ears.

Producer Ed Mirvish is thrilled to be bringing the Tony Åward-winning show to Toronto and says it is “a show that will do our city proud.” Single tickets for WAR HORSE go on sale Sept 26.