After the splendid performance of Porgy & Bess Kathy and I saw Thursday night,  just about anything short of the Second Coming itself would have been sadly anti-climactic.

Fortunately, what we saw Friday night was a moving and overwhelming work of theater called War Horse that need not take second place to anything-  and which proved to be a very fitting grand finale to our time in NYC.

I think our encounter with War Horse was when my wife saw something (maybe on CBS Sunday Morning)  about the play and the astonishing puppetry which was used to depict the horses.  That was enough to get us excited, but when we went to New York City not long after that,  I don’t think even the mayor himself would have been able to score a ticket to what was at that point the hottest show in town.  We hoped we would have the opportunity to see it someday, but by no means was that for certain.  Then my friend Marshall saw it and went positively bonkers over it- and when he raves about a play and production, you can take it to the bank.  At that point,  we knew we had to see it – and you’d better believe that as we planned our next trip to New York City, nothing was a higher priority than seeing War Horse.   And it did not disappoint- not one little bit.

The play is actually based on a book of the same name by MIchael Morpurgo, and I hope someday to read the book to compare it both to this play and to the Steven Spielberg film- which I saw and enjoyed …. but not nearly as much as the play.   The story begins just before the beginning of World War One,  when a well-meaning if erratic and struggling farmer, Mr. Narracott, buys a horse at auction – paying far more than he can afford – even though it has no background as a workhorse and is likely to be useless.  But the farmer’s teenage son Albert is somehow able to train the horse (whom he names Joey)  and develops with him an amazingly close bond- only to have his heart broken when his father sells Joey to the British cavalry.   Most the play from that point depicts the harrowing experiences which Joey has, beginning with an ill-conceived British attack which ends in massive casualties and in Joey being seized by the Germans.  He eventually ends up with a German deserter and a sweet young French girl before the full horrors of war swallow him up all over again. Meanwhile,  Albert- despite being too young- enlists in the hopes of somehow finding Joey and bringing him home safe and sound.

I love the play,  and I love it even though it plays with realism in a way that I usually don’t like.  Remember the film Forrest Gump?   For much of that film,  it seems like the events are entirely plausible and you might even wonder if this is based on a true story.  But then the story will take these fanciful turns that make it clear that what you’re watching never really happened and never could have happened.  It becomes something more than a slice of the real world and real life.  War Horse is a bit like that-  brutally realistic in many ways, and yet there are these moments when the story feels like larger-than-life myth.  I tend to prefer my theatrical experiences to be more definitely cast in one or the other,  and vacillation between the two usually irritates me terribly.  But War Horse was such a completely

engrossing experience that none of that mattered…. and even if it wasn’t always realistic,  it was always REAL.

Speaking of being irritated,   Kathy and I were cursed to be sitting very close to a young girl who spent most of the evening fumbling with her bag of candy.  If she had been right in front of me,  I would have whispered something into her oblivious little ear. . . and I’m still not sure why I didn’t say something during intermission. . . but the truth is that even the rattling of a bag of candy wasn’t enough to dispel the impact of this remarkable play and production.  Part of me thinks that three sumo wrestlers could have run down the aisles spraying the audience with fire extinguishers and we would have scarcely noticed.  It’s that kind of play.

I think I was most astonished that a stage play could plunge us right into the heart of war’s darkest horrors.  And when it came to horror,  World War One was as brutal any war that has ever been waged by human beings.  It was a conflict in which monstrous new tools of warfare were emerging against which traditional soldiers didn’t have a chance. . . and believe it or not,  we experience that very powerful in this production. It’s also a play which reminds us that the casualties of the first world war included innocent children- and innocent animals- brutalized in so many ways.   And courageously, this play dares to depict (some) soldiers on both sides of the conflict in humane and even heroic terms.

All of the horses in the production, including Joey, are depicted in puppetry-  with three puppeteers bringing each horse to life.  And the puppeteers were in no way hidden; they were always fully visible to us.  But there was just something about the way they did what they did that you very quickly lost all awareness that they were even there.  And I don’t begin to know how they accomplished that feat or how they were able to bring these horse-shaped puppets so convincingly to life . . . but they did, and the puppeteers received the biggest ovation of the night.    But make no mistake- War Horse would never have had its powerful impact without marvelous performances from every human being in the cast as well.

This kind of puppetry, for as difficult as it is to do this well,  still feels like a very old kind of theater – and that’s what I expected the entire production to be. . .  whimsical & imaginative and all accomplished without the high tech touches that are so pervasive in modern theater.  But in fact the puppets shared the stage with all kinds of sophisticated projections,  with pre-recorded musical accompaniment reminiscent of a fine cinematic score,  and live music-making as well.   If the story had been fairly pedestrian,  it would still have been an awe-inspiring evening thanks to all that.  But to have all of that theatrical wizardry devoted to such a moving story felt like luxury piled upon luxury.  German opera composer Richard Wagner coined a very intimidating term – Gesamtkunstwerk – which means “all- encompassing work of art.”  He believed that the various elements of opera…. orchestra, solo singers, dancers, chorus, scenery, costumes, lights, etc. …. should all meld together in such a way that the listener is scarcely aware of any single element, but instead takes them all in as one overwhelming whole.   I found War Horse to be that kind of experience for me.  The various facets of the production worked together so splendidly that you couldn’t help but just lose yourself in the story. . . and it was only after it was all one and you were on your feet cheering (and wiping away tears)  that you began to appreciate all of the ingredients that had been combined so expertly so produce this magic.

That being said,  I do have to mention one specific moment that hit both Kathy and me like the proverbial ton of bricks.  There is a memorable moment fairly early in the play when Joey the pony suddenly becomes Joey the magnificent horse…. and that moment of transformation, which occurs right before our eyes,  brought both Kathy and me instantly to tears.  That might seem like a case of us losing sight of the whole in favor a single spectacular trick…. but in fact this was more about being inspired and awed by such splendid storytelling and this sense that absolutely anything was possible on that stage.  And in fact, it was . . .  thanks to the brilliant geniuses responsible for War Horse.

pictured above:  The two major horses and their puppeteers take a bow.