War Horse.
It's about a horse who's separated from his person when he's sold to the calvary and sent to WW1 France. I tear up watching the trailer.
The raves about the National Theatre of Great Britain's production are endless, the puppets created by South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company are magnificent and since its premiere in London in 2007, it's won a pile of awards including two Laurence Oliviers and five Tonys.
The Australian production opens at Arts Centre Melbourne on 31 December.
Tickets for the opening or the season are available here.
I haven't read Michael Morpurgo's book (or seen the Spielberg film version) but I've read one of his about a cat and her person during WW2. It's beautiful and sad and filled with love. I'm holding back on reading War Horse until I've seen the theatre version.
Morpurgo worked with the adapters on the creation, so I feel safe that it retains the honesty and hope that sits at the heart of his writing. There's more about the adaption at warhorseonstage.com.
And a wonderful consequence of adaption is that a book that used to sell a couple of thousand copies a year has now sold over a million copies. Even if adaptions are not the story told in a book, they bring more people to the original story and that's always a good thing.
