| War Horse |
| Written by Natalie Goldberg | |||
| Monday, 08 August 2011 00:57 | |||
 War Horse is based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, Adapted by Nick Stafford Directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris Cast: Stephen James Anthony , Zach Appelman , Alyssa Bresnahan , Richard Crawford , Sanjit De Silva , Matt Doyle , Austin Durant , Joby Earle , Joel Reuben Ganz , Ariel Heller , Peter Hermann , Alex Hoeffler , Brian Lee Huynh , Jeslyn Kelly , Ian Lassiter , Tom Lee , Jonathan Christopher MacMillan , Jonathan David Martin , Boris McGiver , Seth Numrich , Prentice Onayemi , Bhavesh Patel , David Pegram , Kate Pfaffl , Stephen Plunkett , Leenya Rideout , Liam Robinson , Jude Sandy , Hannah Sloat , T. Ryder Smith, Zach Villa , Elliot Villar , Cat Walleck , Enrico D. Wey , Madeleine Rose Yen War Horse, coming off of five Tony wins and extreme success in the UK, definitely lives up to the hype. The physical acting, the emotional acting, the story, the direction...everything comes together in a shocking, vibrant, and somewhat beautiful way. It's hard to imagine caring about a play with a horse as the major focus. I mean, it's a horse. There is a certain level of investment I'm going to reach with a horse. However, War Horse proved me wrong. Perhaps one has to view it to understand, but even the way the horse (s) move onstage, is remarkable. There is one scene, in the midst of military training for World War I, where two horses circle each other, performing a kind of dance. It sounds insane, but, as an audience member, you really get the sense that you are going through exactly what they are. For Albert (Seth Numrich), this is all he wants from Joey, the main horse. Joey, is controlled by three actors as a goal (Stephen James Anthony, David Pegram, and Leenya Rideout) and three as an adult (Alex Hoeffler, Jude Sandy, and Zach Villa). Albert's father, Ted (Borris McGiver), purchases Joey early on in the play, and Albert becomes quite attached to the horse. When Ted tries to sell Joey to the army, as they need horses for World War I, Albert can't bear it, and decides to enlist in the army himself, along with his cousin, Billy (Matt Doyle), with whom he has an ongoing rivalry. After enlisting, Albert makes it his life goal to find Joey. This search is essentially akin to finding a needle in a haystack. While Numrich's portrayal of Joey can be viewed as a little over the top (his voice is incredibly eager to the point of screeching at times), I firmly believe that he really does feel as intense of a connection with Joey as his tone would suggest. Doyle (who I used to do musicals with in Marin County, still as cute and talented as ever...) puts on a great show as well, maintaining a fantastic balance of snootiness and fear. The loathing the two boys have for one another is mimicked by Joey, and another horse,, Topthorn (Joby Earle, Ariel Heller, and Enrico D. Wey), as they go through the war together, sometimes as friends, sometimes as enemies. The way the horses are traded between the English, French, and Germans is quite effective as a metaphor for no one being exactly good or bad in times of battle. Often, the characters speak to one another in what we assume are their respective languages, yet, they say the words in English, and the person they are talking to responds with, "I don't understand you." World War I itself and Albert's relationship with Joey seem like they should have some sort of common ground, but to me, they actually didn't seem to. Certainly, there's the loss of innocence factor, but it seemed that the real triumph of War Horse is its production value. One is mentally and emotionally overwhelmed by the staging, it conveys far more than the words themselves. Elliott and Morris make use of the entire space. At certain points, the horses move up and down the stairs, next to the audience. The kind of spectacle the director creates while still staying true to the writer's highly intellectual intent is admirable. This show really touches upon something that we all have inside of us, although verbalizing what it is exactly, seems impossible. Perhaps it just allows us to look back on that time in life when a horse's gallop was all it took to make us smile. For more articles like War Horse, please visit the Stage Reviews Section of TimesSquare.com
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