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War Horse

Nick Stafford
Contents (46)
  1. War Horse
  2. Contents
  3. First Performance
  4. Characters
  5. WAR HORSE
  6. Author’s Note
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. FOUR
  11. FIVE
  12. SIX
  13. SEVEN
  14. EIGHT
  15. NINE
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. TWENTY
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. TWENTY-NINE
  34. THIRTY
  35. War Horse Songbook
  36. The Devonshire Carol
  37. Only Remembered
  38. The Scarlet and the Blue
  39. Snowfalls
  40. Brisk Young Ploughboy
  41. Rolling Home
  42. Stand To
  43. Goodbye Dolly Gray
  44. About the Author
  45. By Nick Stafford from Faber
  46. Copyright
alt

NICK STAFFORD

War Horse

adapted for the stage from the novel by

MICHAEL MORPURGO

Contents

  1. Title Page
  2. First Performance
  3. Characters
  4. War Horse
  5. Author’s Note
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-Three
  27. Twenty-Four
  28. Twenty-Five
  29. Twenty-Six
  30. Twenty-Seven
  31. Twenty-Eight
  32. Twenty-Nine
  33. Thirty
  34. War Horse Song Book
  35. The Devonshire Carol
  36. Only Remembered
  37. The Scarlet and the Blue
  38. Snowfalls
  39. Brisk Young Ploughboy
  40. Rolling Home
  41. Stand To
  42. Goodbye Dolly Gray
  43. About the Author
  44. By Nick Stafford from Faber
  45. Copyright

First Performance

War Horse was first performed in the Olivier auditorium of the National Theatre, London, presented in association with Handspring Puppet Company, on 9 October 2007. The cast, in alphabetical order, was as follows:

Jamie Ballard Major Nicholls

Alice Barclay Swallow/Emilie

Jason Barnett Chapman Carter/Rudi/Heine

James Barriscale Sergeant Bone/Colonel Strauss/Sergeant Fine

Simon Bubb Captain Stewart/Soldat Schmidt

Finn Caldwell Joey’s Mother/Goose/Topthorn/Veterinary Officer Martin

Paul Chequer David/Soldat Schultz

Tim van Eyken Song Man

Thomas Goodridge Young Joey/Topthorn

Stephen Harper Joey’s Mother/Dr Schweyk/Coco/Geordie

Thusitha Jayasundera Rose Narracott/Private Shaw

Gareth Kennerley Veterinary Officer Bight/Karl

Craig Leo Crow/Joey

Rachel Leonard Baby Joey/Emilie

Tim Lewis Topthorn/Major Callaghan

Tommy Luther Joey

Mervyn Millar Baby Joey/Emilie

Emily Mytton Paulette/Crow

Toby Olié Swallow/Joey/Crow

Toby Sedgwick Ted Narracott/Coco

Ashley Taylor-Rhys Ned Warren/Heine

Luke Treadaway Albert Narracott

Howard Ward Sergeant Thunder/Soldat Klebb

Alan Williams Arthur Warren/Soldat Manfred

Angus Wright Hauptmann Friedrich Müller

All other parts played by members of the company

Directors Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris

Designer/Drawings Rae Smith

Puppet Design and Fabrication Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler for Handspring Puppet Company

Lighting Designer Paule Constable

Director of Movement Toby Sedgwick

Music Adrian Sutton

Songmaker John Tams

Music Director Harvey Brough

Video Designers Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer for Fifty Nine Productions Ltd

Sound Designer Christopher Shutt

Associate Mervyn Millar

Characters

Joey, a horse

Alice, his mother, a horse

Chapman Carter, auctioneer

Villagers/Ringsiders

Albert Narracott

Ted Narracott, his father

Arthur Warren

Ned, his son

Rose Narracott, Albert’s mother

Captain Stewart

Topthorn, a horse

Sergeant Greig

Sergeant Bone

Major Nicholls

Veterinary Officer Bright

Sergeant Thunder

David Taylor

Hauptmann (Captain) Friedrich Muller

Stein, his batman

Gefreiter (Lance Corporal) Karl,
promoted to Offizier-Stellvertreter*

Doctor Schweyk

Colonel Strauss

Paulette

Emilie, Paulette’s daughter,
aged seven, aging to eleven

Unteroffizier (Sergeant) Klebb

Schultz

Heine, Coco, horses

Sergeant Fine

Sentry Shaw

Rudi

Schmidt, fleeing German soldier

Geordie

Manfred

Ludwig

Major Callaghan, officer at clearing station

Veterinary Officer Martin

Various soldiers, puppet horses, other animals and birds

* Offizier-Stellvertreter: Acting Officer – a rank (created due to heavy casualties) given to NCOs who acted in the field as officers but without the privileges of a commission.

WAR HORSE

Author’s Note

Joey – the central character – Alice, his mother, and Topthorn are all horses. None of them speaks but all – especially Joey – have detailed throughlines.

This involves many more stage directions than is normal in a stage play, and these barely indicate the detailed relationships between horse and human that need to be plotted to tell this story. A full description of the horses’ movements and reactions would be a script in itself. Therefore what follows is intended to be sufficient to begin.