Apart from being a landmark theatre event, the local tour of “War Horse” may pull the right strings to unharness the country’s emerging puppet power, writes Katlego Mkhwanazi.
Joey, the star of the theatre production War Horse, matches the appearance, in stature and mannerisms, of a live horse. When he breathes into the crowd, a thick-winded grunting and equine-like gurgling amaze the audience at Montecasino’s piazza in Fourways.
The production, an adaptation of the 1982 novel by Michael Morpurgo, centres on a young boy whose horse is taken into service by the British army during World War I. Having premiered at London’s National Theatre in 2007, War Horse is finally touring Johannesburg and Cape Town from October 22. This is truly an intricate production. Up close, the realistic wonder that is Joey is revealed to be a frame covered in a thin transparent cloth that resembles skin.
Three puppeteers skilfully manipulate his movements. One operates Joey’s head from outside the horse’s body, moving his head, neck and ears with a control stick. The two other puppeteers, partly obscured inside Joey’s body, manoeuvre his front legs and breath with a lever and handle and his back legs and tail with ski pole-like rods. The 2.5m puppet, weighing in at 43kg, has an aluminium spine and a body made of cane, leather and Tyvec fabric (a synthetic material).
Joey, alongside the other life-sized puppets in War Horse, is the creation of the Handspring Puppet Company, which was co-founded by South Africans Adrian Kohler (artistic director) and Basil Jones (executive producer). Considered to be a world leader in the puppetry field, the Cape Town-based company has built an enterprise that has created a number of jobs for local puppeteers and artisans. When Handspring arrived on the scene in the 1980s, it revolutionised a market whose main exposure to puppetry had been through children’s television shows such as Liewe Heksie, Pumpkin Patch, Mina Moo en Kie and Mulwana la Mmutla.
The company’s first play for adults was Episodes of an Easter Rising in 1985, a string puppet adaptation of a radio play by David Lytton. The company has since gone on to produce many more plays using puppets, garnering accolades along the way.
War Horse’s London and Broadway runs scooped many awards, including a special Tony Award for Kohler and Jones. The reaction of the audience watching, wide-eyed in terror or curiosity, the undulatory movements of Joey at Montecasino’s Teatro is an indication that the production will no doubt shine the spotlight on the under -estimated skill of puppetry.
War Horse is on at the Montecasino Teatro from October 22 to November 30, before transferring to the Artscape Opera House in Cape Town from December 5 to January 4
For full report see Mail & Guardian
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