War Horse tickets on sale
Priority briefs for 2014 date now available
Michael Morpurgo meets Joey at the London launch of the NT tour of War Horse. Photo credit @edtheatres
By Thom Dibdin
The first tickets have gone on sale for the National Theatre’s production of War Horse, which tours to the Festival Theatre in January 2014.
The touring production opens in Plymouth next September, playing Birmingham Hippodrome and the Salford Lowry before arriving in Edinburgh on 22 January. The three week run marks the production’s only appearance in Scotland.
Festival Theatre Chief Executive Duncan Hendry said, “We are thrilled to be hosting the only Scottish performances of War Horse at the Festival Theatre and delighted that audiences north of the border now have a chance to see this highly acclaimed production in Scotland. We look forward to welcoming more shows of this stature in future.”
Edinburgh tickets have gone on sale for “friends” of the Festival and King’s Theatres – details of how to become a friend are on the website here. Booking for groups – of eight and over – opens on 16 October with tickets going on general sale on October 23.
War Horse is based on the 1982 best-selling novel by Michael Morpurgo which tells the story of a young boy called Albert and his beloved horse, Joey, who has been requisitioned to fight for the English in World War I.
Caught in enemy crossfire, Joey ends up serving on both sides during the war before landing in no man’s land. Albert, not old enough to enlist, embarks on a treacherous mission to find his horse and bring him home.
The National Theatre production is remarkable for its use of puppets to bring Joey and other horses to life-size, galloping incarnation on the stage. The groundbreaking puppetry work by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company has won the company a Special Tony Award to add to the five other Tony awards for the Broadway production.
Following Edinburgh, the production tours to the Southampton Mayflower Theatre, Dublin’s Bord Géis Energy Theatre, The Sunderland Empire Theatre, Bradford Alhambra and the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.
War Horse, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 22 Jan – Sat 15 Feb 2014. Details: www.edtheatres.com
War Horse on Tour: www.warhorseonstage.com
ENDS
