War Horse

Brighton Centre, Kings Road, Brighton, Thursday, January 25, to Saturday, February 10, 2018

AS tickets go on sale this month for the 2018 First World War centenary tour of Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse, the author is keen to emphasise how important it still is for young people to learn about the conflict.

“It’s very easy for us to become disassociated with the war,” says Morpurgo. “I have links to it, in the way most people of 70 do – my parents were born during the war.

“If you’re ten or 15 though it’s old stuff. What’s important is it was supposed to be the war to end all wars – but we are living with the consequences today. It’s such a relevant war – it began modern history.”

What is most important is to ensure it is remembered in the right way, and not glorified – which is exactly what Morpurgo’s 1982 book does.

“After a performance of the play someone came to me and said it was the greatest anthem about peace,” says Morpurgo. “It’s a story about war, but it’s a longing for peace and resolution.

“We have this knowledge now that peace is the way forward – there are some maniacs in the world who think otherwise, but the vast majority of us want peace.”

War Horse is told from the point of view of Joey – a young horse eventually sold by his owner Ted to the army, despite the protestations of Ted’s son Albert. Through the horse’s point of view the reader is shown both sides of the conflict as Joey is taken across the lines.

“The way to engage children and young people with history is to get them to know and love central characters,” says Morpurgo. “I think the horse telling the story resonates with young people. It goes across nationalities and cultures – War Horse is currently playing in London and Shanghai, even though for the Chinese it was a far away war.”

Morpurgo was inspired to write the book in 1982 after meeting a First World War veteran, who told him about the horses on the battlefields in France.

But Morpurgo puts its classic status today down to the National Theatre production in 2007.

“The book wasn’t successful,” he admits. “It hardly sold 1,000 copies and didn’t win any prizes. It means the first editions are worth a small fortune now!

“It was the National Theatre who came along and said they wanted to do the story as a play with puppets. I couldn’t see how it could play out – it sounded kooky. I didn’t believe it, but two years later I had to believe it because there it was on stage.”

It was the mother of National Theatre associate director Tom Morris who encouraged him to read War Horse after hearing Morpurgo on Desert Island Discs.

“War Horse came up and she thought it sounded interesting,” says Morpurgo. “Her father had been with the cavalry in the First World War. She went out and bought the book, read it and then told Tom it had to be his next play.”

As it happened Morris was looking for a project to do with Handspring Puppets who he had worked with at the Battersea Arts Centre. He wanted to continue a season of productions based on children’s books which had included Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy and Jamila Gavin’s Coram Boy.

“He was looking for a book with an animal character, that would be the hero of the book,” says Morpurgo, who was given the opportunity to look over adaptor Nick Stafford’s script as it developed.

“I gave notes and by and large they listened to me – although they didn’t always agree. There was a point where I thought it was drifting away from me, so I rang up Philip Pullman.

“He told me the National Theatre were really good at what they do,” recalls Morpurgo. “I either had to trust them, or not sell them the rights. As I had already sold them the rights there was no point worrying about it.”

Central to the production was designer Ray Smith’s design of Joey the horse, which took its inspiration from the sketches by lieutenant James Nicholls during the course of the story.

“The whole of the show is wrapped around this drawing which Albert takes to the war with him,” says Morpurgo, who was also pleased with the use of folk music in the production.

He now regularly makes appearances with the puppet Joey – having read out names of the fallen at the Tower Of London alongside him in 2014.

He has even developed his own show War Horse: Only Remembered which combines readings from the book and war-related writings with songs from the National Theatre production.

As well as War Horse there are future stage adaptations of Morpurgo’s work on the way, including 946, an adaptation of his book The Amazing Story Of Adolphus Tipps with Kneehigh Theatre, which will be at the Globe Theatre this summer.

And Chichester Festival Youth Theatre’s promenade production Running Wild looks set to have another life – with Morpurgo being so impressed with last summer’s performance he saw it two nights running.

“To be around and amongst young people making theatre is wonderful,” he says. “It lifts your spirits enormously. I fed off their story-telling energy.”

If 2018 sounds like a long way away, Morpurgo fans can catch him at Brighton Festival in May, where he is making a personal appearance on Wednesday, May 11, as part of the 26 Letters children’s literature strand.

Starts 2.30pm and 7.30pm, tickets from £20. Call 08448 471515.