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[glenatron]

We went to see War Horse at the National Theatre last night. It's a long time since I've been to London or to the Theatre at all and I really enjoyed it- the puppetry was amazing, the horses beautifully observed ( I would love to know what study they did to get their horses to be so horsey ) played by three puppeteers, one handling each pair of legs and one operating the head. They were always moving- even when they were in the background they were breathing, swishing their tails, scratching themselves and generally being horses. I was very impressed with how they appropriated cinematic techniques as well- slow motion, freeze frames, panning the stage around to change point of view - all beautifully executed. And the combination of Tim Van Eyken performing music on stage and John Tams putting the songs together was as winning as anyone who knows who those two people are might expect.

Inevitably, given the story, the whole thing was pretty much heartrending- I think sleepsy_mouse and I both spent most of the second half in floods - but I'm ever so glad to have seen it.

Useful statistic from the programme- more than a million horses left Britain for France during World War One, 62000 made it back. Across all sides more than 8 million horses died in that war.