The Broadway production of “War Horse” took home five Tony awards Sunday, including best play. The play is based on Michael Morpurgo’s novel which details the relationship between a young boy and his horse as they witness the devastation of World War I. Both the play and the novel encapsulate the multiplicity of suffering that occurs in a time of war.
According to the BBC, the stellar success of the play has launched plans for a 20-city U.S. tour. The play has also had great success in London’s West End, selling more than a million tickets. There are also plans for the play to be staged in Canada, Australia, and Japan.
The “War Horse” will go completely global as it hits cinemas at the end of the year. Steven Spielberg is working on a fantastic movie tribute to this fabulous play. The film will star British actor Benedict Cumberbatch and Emily Watson. The film will be released in the U.K. on January 13th.
Many fans consider the life-size horse puppets the most compelling artistic aspect of the play. They are truly an incredible spectacle. They relationship between the boy and his horse is carefully constructed to offset the emotional heaviness of this astonishing play.
Some critics worry that this emotionally charged play will somehow be transformed into a shiny Hollywood melodrama as Spielberg constructs the movie. Yet many others realize that Spielberg’s mastery of sentimental dramas is evident through his stellar track record.
The play’s success continues to astonish British author Morpurgo who wrote the novel in 1982. Morpurgo attributes the success of the take-off of his novel to the changes that have occurred in American Society after 1982. The story is possibly more relevant now being that the U.S. has been involved in military conflicts for the past decade.
