{"id":22628,"date":"2024-04-15T12:16:55","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T11:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=22628"},"modified":"2024-04-15T12:16:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T11:16:55","slug":"the-national-theatres-war-horse-comes-to-the-grand-opera-house-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2024\/04\/the-national-theatres-war-horse-comes-to-the-grand-opera-house-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"The National Theatre’s WAR HORSE comes to the Grand Opera House in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE NATIONAL THEATRE\u2019S MULTI-AWARD-WINNING PRODUCTION OF WAR HORSE\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>COMES TO THE GRAND OPERA HOUSE IN FEBRUARY 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

The National Theatre\u2019s global smash-hit production of War Horse<\/em>, the unforgettable theatrical event based on Michael Morpurgo\u2019s beloved novel, will embark on a major 18-month UK Tour and will take to the Grand Opera House stage for its Northern Ireland premiere in February 2025.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"War Horse<\/em><\/strong> will run at the Grand Opera House for two weeks from Tuesday 4 February to Saturday 15 February 2025, and tickets go on sale today for <\/strong>Gold & Silver Friends, Wednesday 17 April 2024 for Bronze Friends, and general on sale is this Friday, 18 April 2024.<\/p>\n

War Horse, <\/em><\/strong>adapted by Nick Stafford <\/strong>and originally directed by Marianne Elliott<\/strong> and Tom Morris, <\/strong>has become the most successful play in the history of the National Theatre, winning more than 25 major awards and has been seen by over 8.3 million people worldwide. This new tour is co-produced with Michael Harrison, Fiery Angel, and Playing Field.<\/p>\n

War Horse <\/em><\/strong>tells the remarkable story of a young boy called Albert and his horse Joey, set against the backdrop of the First World War. This powerfully moving and imaginative drama is a show of phenomenal inventiveness, filled with stirring music and songs, featuring ground-breaking puppetry work by South Africa\u2019s Handspring Puppet Company,<\/strong> which brings breathing, galloping, charging horses to thrilling life on stage and has inspired a generation of theatre-makers since its premiere in 2007.<\/p>\n

Director, Tom Morris<\/strong> said, \u201cIt is a huge privilege to be invited to revisit War Horse<\/strong> and to share this powerful story once more with audiences around the country. Michael Morpurgo\u2019s brilliant idea, to explore the crushing violence of war through the experience of a horse, makes his story as powerful and resonant today as it has ever been. And in this time of increasing commercialism in theatre, it\u2019s worth remembering that the production which carried War Horse to an international audience was a wild experiment, developed through workshops at the National Theatre Studio, the unique theatre laboratory where ground-breaking hits from <\/em>Coram Boy and <\/em>London Road to <\/em>The Witches were devised. It has been an enormous thrill to return there in recent months to reunite Adrian Kohler\u2019s magnificent puppets with designer Rae Smith, composer Adrian Sutton and other members of the original cast and creative team to start the process of bringing Joey back to the stage<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Author, Michael Morpurgo<\/strong> said: \u201cI am so delighted the National Theatre\u2019s iconic production of\u00a0War Horse<\/strong>\u00a0is back! When Covid closed the show down in\u00a02020\u00a0in Australia in the midst of its\u00a0second\u00a0World Tour, many thought, and I was amongst them, that we\u2019d never see\u00a0War Horse<\/strong>\u00a0on stage again.\u00a0Now it\u2019s really happening – we will hear the music and songs, be amazed by its design and lighting, live Joey\u2019s story again.\u00a0War Horse<\/strong>\u00a0is\u00a0about the tragedy of war and about a horse and his boy, but it’s also so many other things – it’s about family and community, courage and loss, hope, and most importantly reconciliation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

At the outbreak of World War One, Joey, young Albert\u2019s beloved horse, is sold to the Cavalry and shipped to France. He\u2019s soon caught up in enemy fire, and fate takes him on an extraordinary journey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in\u00a0no man\u2019s land. Albert, who remained on his parents\u2019 Devon farm, cannot forget Joey. Though still not old enough to enlist he embarks on a treacherous mission to find him and bring him home.<\/p>\n

This tour of War Horse<\/em><\/strong> marks 110 years since the start of the First World War and follows the 40th<\/sup> anniversary of the publication of Michael Morpurgo\u2019s global best-selling novel, which has now sold over 35 million copies world-wide and in 37 different languages.<\/p>\n

Executive Director of the National Theatre, Kate Varah<\/strong> said: \u201cWe are delighted that we are able to launch this major new UK tour of War Horse<\/strong>. This moving and spectacular production has captured the imagination of millions of audience members across the world since it was first performed on the Olivier stage in 2007 and we are deeply appreciative and excited, to be working with our co-producers to make this possible in the current landscape. We look forward to connecting with our partner venues with this much-loved story, that appeals to all ages and which beautifully showcases the magic of live performance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Creative development for the tour is being led by Tom Morris<\/strong> with revival director Katie Henry<\/strong>, featuring reimagined designs by Rae Smith<\/strong> and additional music by Adrian Sutton<\/strong>. Puppet design and fabrication is by Basil Jones<\/strong> and Adrian Kohler<\/strong> for Handspring Puppet Company,<\/strong> lighting design is by Rob Casey, <\/strong>movement and horse choreography is by Toby Sedgwick <\/strong>with puppet direction by Matthew Forbes. <\/strong>Animation and projection design is by Nicol Scott<\/strong>\u00a0for 59 Productions, John Tams<\/strong> is songmaker and sound design is by Christopher Shutt. <\/strong>Casting is by Jill Green CDG <\/strong>and associate designer is Will Fricker. <\/strong>Casting is to be announced.<\/p>\n

War Horse<\/em><\/strong> received its world premiere on 9 October 2007 at the National Theatre, where it played for two seasons before opening at the New London Theatre in March 2009. Since then, War Horse<\/em><\/strong> has been seen in 97 cities in 14 countries, including productions on Broadway, in Toronto and Berlin, with touring productions in the UK and Ireland, North America, the Netherlands and Belgium.<\/p>\n

For more information visit WarHorseOnStage.com<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

War Horse<\/em><\/strong> on tour is supported by Charles Stanley, the National Theatre\u2019s Touring Partner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE NATIONAL THEATRE\u2019S MULTI-AWARD-WINNING PRODUCTION OF WAR HORSE\u00a0COMES TO THE GRAND OPERA HOUSE IN FEBRUARY 2025 The National Theatre\u2019s global smash-hit production of War Horse, the unforgettable theatrical event based on Michael Morpurgo\u2019s beloved novel, will embark on a major 18-month UK Tour and will take to the Grand Opera House stage for its Northern … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22628"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22630,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22628\/revisions\/22630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}