The Theatre
After my stepson’s graduation we took my husband’s parents to Scotland to visit cousins who live there while we headed to Aberdeen to visit friends of ours. The following day we picked them up and flew to London. We were eagerly anticipating seeing the show War Horse that had received heaps of accolades in the press both in London and back in Australia.
My father-in-law was paying for the four of us plus his grandson, his grandson’s girlfriend and my husband’s ex-wife who was there for graduation and to help my stepson organize getting all his crap back to Australia after 5 years at university. I wasn’t too sure about the show choice. I would have preferred a musical but the ex and my stepson were really keen to see this War Horse play.
The show is about a horse (obviously) as a young foal and all that happens to him as he makes his way towards becoming a war horse in the first world war. Joey is an imposing puppet (full size freakin horse puppet) made of bamboo, nylon, bicycle chain and leather, and its three human operators are clearly visible, but not long into the show the horse ceases to be a puppet and is perceived by everyone in the autidence to be a living, breathing force onstage.
Well, the only thing fantastic about the play to me were the puppets. Horses and a funny goose caught my eye. The actual play I thought was pretty ordinary. So here I am sitting with all the family thinking, “it will be awful if I’m the only one to think this is less than stellar writing.”
The play ended and my father-in-law (remember he’s 90 and he’s paid a fortune for the 7 tickets) comes out of the theatre and everyone is raving about how fantastic the puppets were and Rob says, “the puppets were ok but the whole thing was pretty ordinary if you ask me.”
Turns out, it was the only thing on the whole trip that we really didn’t enjoy. Watch for the post on taking him to the Moulin Rouge!
August 21st, 2009 at 4:14 pm
nice…walking and drop EC
keep update your post…
im still waiting
thanks
Aceh Barat
August 28th, 2009 at 5:58 am
hey………i love plays too…..i mean you find some real life content….and acting live is like the toughest thing in the world……. i have seen theater actors becoming great actor on big screen too…….
Moulin Rouge….i loved that movie……best of luck for that…in case i don’t return
woo hoo……..\,,,/
October 17th, 2009 at 6:37 am
I’ve been reading your blog and seeing the picture of the horse puppet since you started dropping ECs on my blog, and I have to say something, that horse looks very realistic! When I first happened upon your blog, I said to myself “What are they doing with those sticks to that poor horse!” After reading of course, I found that it wasn’t real. But I know it must have been a grand experience to see the whole play, and I know it was very easy to forget that the horse wasn’t real. Great picture!
October 21st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Is that the actual horse prop used in the play? Nice!
October 27th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Cool site:)