The award-winning team behind War Horse, the National Theatre’s most successful show ever, will reunite for a one-off event to mark the last performance of the show at the New London Theatre.
The genius behind the original book, children’s author Michael Morpurgo, will be joined at War Horse: The Final Farewell on 12 March by co-directors Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, designer Rae Smith, composer Adrian Sutton, and the director of movement and horse choreography Toby Sedgwick.
Completing the line-up will be Handspring Puppet Company’s Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, who will fly in from South Africa to discuss the pivotal part the puppets have played in the show’s worldwide success.
War Horse made its world premiere to huge critical acclaim at the National Theatre in 2007 before transferring to the West End in 2009. The show, which tells the emotive story of one boy’s journey to rescue his faithful horse from the battlefields of the First World War, has subsequently been seen by more than 2.7 million people in London and a staggering seven million worldwide.
Actors including Olivier Award winner Luke Treadaway and Game Of Thrones’ star Kit Harington have been seen in the leading role of Albert, and horse Joey has met everyone from HM the Queen to The Rolling Stone’s Ronnie Wood.
The show was one of the greatest successes of the NT’s former leading team Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr’s 10 year tenure at the venue. Starr will chair this incredible talk as the team reunites to explain just how the little-known children’s book became such a stage phenomenon.
War Horse: The Final Farewell will take place at 17:15 at the New London Theatre prior to the show’s final performance at the theatre. Fans can book tickets now from the National Theatre’s website.