Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2011 - 45

effects. These technical elements are integrated seamlessly to effectively
transform the novel into a unique presentation of the War Horse story
on the Broadway stage.
The stage adaptation of War Horse is by Nick Stafford in association
with Handspring Puppet Company. Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris direct.
Sets, costumes, and projected images are by Rae Smith with lighting by Paule
Constable. Toby Sedgwick is director of movement and horse movement.
War Horse premiered at the National Theatre on the South Bank of
London in November 2007. After two successful runs, War Horse moved
to the New London Theatre in London's West End in March 2009, where it
continues to play to capacity houses. In March 2011, War Horse made its
U.S. debut (in previews) at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center,
where it also continues to play to capacity houses. This article examines
the technical details of the Broadway production.

cess of the play. The necessity of the puppets is a large part of what
drew the Handspring artists to the project, as co-founder Basil Jones
explains: "We always like projects where puppets are not gratuitous
additions but are unavoidably necessary...clearly, War Horse couldn't
have been brought to the stage without the use of very convincing puppets (Healy 2009)."
There are more than twenty puppets, not all horses, (and nearly
as many puppeteers) in War Horse. The puppets are beautiful and diverse. As Lincoln Center Theater production manager Paul Smithyman
observed in our telephone interview, "They are simple but complicated at the same time. That is part of the magic (Smithyman 2011)."
Included under the heading of "puppet" are some elements that
might ordinarily be considered part of the setting or as props, but
which here are manipulated onstage by puppeteers and, therefore,
are considered puppets. The puppets in War Horse range from relatively small swallows on long rods that fly across stage in the opening
scene, to the show's largest puppet, the tank. In between these are the
horses, most significantly, and also other animals including crows, a
very comical goose, numerous soldiers, both dead and alive. Even typically inanimate objects are here made characters of a sort, including
mud, barbed wire, and a deadly bullet.
The bullet is a rod puppet propelled directly across stage by a
single puppeteer. It strikes a soldier and knocks him from his horse in
stylized slow motion.

photos by the author except as noted

t is nearly impossible to see War Horse and not be awed by
the puppets and puppetry, especially the horses. Created by
the artists at the Handspring Puppet Company, led by Basil Jones and
Adrian Kohler, these horse puppets have received much attention in
the press and contribute enormously to the great popularity of the
play. In fact, it is the puppets that enable the effective presentation
of the emotionally-charged central storyline and that are, in no small
part, the primary generators of the great critical and popular suc-

About the Handspring Puppet Company
Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones are two of the founding
members of this South African group that formed in 1981,
and they now head Handspring Puppet Company. Kohler
is the artistic director of Handspring. The puppet design,
fabrication, and direction for the Lincoln Center Theater
production of War Horse is credited to "Kohler with Basil
Jones for Handspring Puppet Company." Thys Stander, the
chief puppet maker for Handspring, is based at the company's Cape Town facility where all of the horse puppets
for War Horse are made.
Handspring has worked both locally and internationally for years and has created numerous popular and
critically acclaimed productions. Some of these have been
presented in New York at venues including the BAM Next
Wave Festival and the Henson International Festival of
Puppet Theatre, but War Horse has brought them a new
measure of success both in New York and on the international level. Handspring Puppet Company has received a
special Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, and an Outer
Critics Circle Award.
More informmation is available in their 2009 book,
Handspring Puppet Company (David Krut Publishing),
and on their website, www.handspringpuppet.co.za/.

The bullet.

The goose foot wheel.

2011

theatre design

& technology

http://www.handspringpuppet.co.za/

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