Review: War Horse at the Liverpool Empire
- Catherine Kenny
- Nov 23, 2017
- 2 min read
Now, I understand that the gif you are looking at to your left is only a puppet, right? Wrong! After sitting in the theatre for 3 hours, Joey becomes a real horse and you are hooked entirely on his story and his survival throughout the play. War Horse is an emotional journey from start to finish and the star of the show without a doubt are the puppets. Throughout the piece you can forgive the over hamming of the actors because visually, this is a spectacular piece of art that literally has you on the edge of your seat wanting to shout at the top of your voice in defence of this horse.
For once, there was nothing wrong with the audience at the Empire. Previously, in going to see shows in this venue, I have struggled to enjoy the show due to the mounds of drunken audience members sitting around me and ruining the show. Maybe this time it was different because the audience was full of school children and older aged women who were genuinely interested in the story that was being told. And not full of middle aged women who were at the theatre to be at the theatre. But anyway, the star of the show was not only Joey (played by Samuel Parker, Tom Quinn and Tom Stacey) but the Goose (played by Billy Irving), whose comic timing was a light relief to the subject matter of the show. Its not hard to make me cry in the theatre but the emotional connection I was able to make WITH A PUPPET meant that the show had me on board from the beginning. Another emotional connection I was able to make with the show was through the music and essentially the words that expressed the inner feeling of each character. It became a show that could connect all of your senses through acting, movement, music and puppetry.
This show is still one of the best plays I have seen live and is one of the most visually stimulating things I have ever seen on stage. I would rate this play 4/5, it does not get full marks due to some of the acting and directing choices but the puppetry is by far the shows saving grace.
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