Pulling the Individual Out of the Chaos: War Horse

How astounding is the way art can open our minds and teach us to ignore all the things we’ve previously believed?  WWI is not a topic often ignored in classrooms.  I’ve actively learned about it since I was in the sixth grade, probably the age administrators felt students could handle the thought of a war such as that.  Not that I had any kind of understanding of the gruesomeness of trench warfare and nerve gas until I was much, much older.  I think, having two wars so close to one another and with such similar backing, gives a blurred vision of whom and what was actually fighting.  Of course the answer is so simple: people. 

Going into the theater Monday night, I wasn’t expecting to see anything more than the story of a horse that rides valiantly into battle and manages to somehow save the day at the end of it all.  But within the opening scene of War Horse it becomes obvious that Joey isn’t really just a horse.  From the very beginning, the movement of his body as he breathes is more than enough to show that he is a living thing above all else.  And, by the end of the war, once glory has been placed aside, the only aspiration of the men fighting is to continue living.  Life becomes the driving force as David drags Albert out of the nerve gas that would have otherwise meant the end of his life.  In the end, as Albert and Joey ride back into town, it does not matter to anyone who has won, so many have been lost, the idea that glory would replace life is in itself maddening.  Joey’s character shows an image of war not often seen: one in which both sides fight for a common goal.  A Western perspective is thrown out to show the struggle that each man must face as he goes on fighting day after day of a war he can’t believe in.  Each man seems to die with some keepsake of home tucked away.  David says it best, he’s not fighting for the empire, he’s not fighting for freedom, he’s fighting so he can get back home and see his girl. 

War Horse is an extraordinary play, one that is able to really show the war as it actually was.  Someone commented that it seemed impossible WWI could be represented on the stage without the explosions and special effects that come with Hollywood productions.  But it was actually more moving, and more real to see the horses pulling the guns, being simply caught in the barbed wire with no where to go.  So much of the sound one hears while watching the play is gun related.  Riding into battle to the tune of machine guns firing, hearing Captain Nicholls teach Joey not to react at the sound of gunfire.  It’s piercing.  It resonates with the viewer more than a thousand explosions could on the screen. 

To add to the overall success that is War Horse, the set and costuming could not have been more perfectly planned.  Projections of childlike drawings on the screen above were able to transform the stage to wherever it needed to go while still being simple enough to not distract from the madness going on beneath.  I noticed the costuming right away and more than anything else it served to humanize the horses for me.  Although the operators of each animal, the goose, the crows, Topthorn and Joey, could have been dressed in solid colors so as to disappear into the background, the decision to have each man or woman wearing the traditional dress of the time period was, in my opinion, the best possible choice. 

Above all else War Horse opened my eyes to the individual perspective in war.  Here, I was not presented with the classical German machine solider I was taught about for so many years.  These were men who laughed and cried and prayed for their lives.  I did not cry during the show, there was too much laughter among the men, too many jokes being told to try and lift spirits, to try and forget about where they were and what they were doing.  Walking out of the playhouse that night, I felt moved and strangely happy.  As it turns out, we’re all pretty similar.  

Allison Goldman