Review: War Horse – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

War Horse is subject to both critical and commercial acclaim, having won a slew of awards, including a Tony for best play and sell out tours to audiences throughout the world, including a Mandarin language adaptation in China. It has spent 2025 on a major tour of the UK and Ireland, with Thursday night being it’s first performance in Edinburgh since 2014.

For me, it is a show of two halves: On one hand, an emotional tale which continuously underlines the futility of war, and on the other, an amazingly technical, well thought out production with the best puppetry I have ever seen…so writes Catherine Coutts.

In a nutshell, War Horse is the story of young Albert Narracott and a horse – Joey – which his father wins in a drunken mistake at auction. Albert’s mother is furious at his extravagance and fears that the family will lose their home, however Albert vows to look after Joey and the two quickly develop a strong connection.

“On one hand, an emotional tale which continuously underlines the futility of war, and on the other, an amazingly technical, well thought out production with the best puppetry I have ever seen.”

The Great War starts and Albert’s father sees a chance to recoup his money by selling Joey to the army. Albert is devastated, but Captain Nicholls, who buys him, promises he will take good care of him and send Albert sketches to prove he is well. Joey is paired up with Topthorn Heart, another horse with whom he eventually becomes good friends. Captain Nicholls is killed in the first battle and the horses are captured by the Germans and put to work in a field hospital before pulling heavy guns around the battlefield. The work is too much for Topthorn, who dies.

Joey becomes lost in No Man’s Land and badly injures himself on barbed wire, all the time unaware that Albert – who has joined the British army – is nearby. Albert’s sight has been damaged by gas and he is in shock, whilst Joey is so badly injured that the soldiers decide to put him out of his misery. What will happen to the young boy and his horse? The tears could be seen glistening in the corners of the audience’s eyes.

The production values are immense. On arrival, we are greeted by a black space with a tear, on which various pictures are drawn with significant dates, including the Battle of the Somme and Armistice Day. Costumes are well thought out and put together and the paired back scenery allows the cast flexibility to move between different scenes. There seemed to be some teething problems with the sound – the backing music often drowned out the cast and their microphones were quite muffled at times.

There is a large cast – when they are all on stage together it is rather too large, a bit cramped and doesn’t add anything to the performance – but the real stars of the show are the puppets. In addition to the two main horses, there are various other horses and animals, including a goose, which provides a bit of light relief. The birds fly as hand puppets or on devices similar to fishing rods and are very appealing.

“…the real stars of the show are the puppets.”

I wouldn’t know how to start to describe the horse puppets! Suffice it to say that the 16 puppeteers involved in bringing the main horses to life in the show are masters of their craft, managing to mimic the tiniest moves of these animals. A small gripe is that I found dressing the puppeteers in costumes of the time very distracting and would have preferred them to be in blacks. With such amazing puppets and puppeteers, why would you have this distraction and spoil the illusion so easily?

The battle scenes were extremely effective, slowing movements up and using lighting and projections to recreate the feeling of being in the trenches.

This is an exceptional production and easily the best show I have seen in years – if you don’t go to see it you will be missing out.

All Images: War Horse at the New London Theatre Photo by Brinkhoff Mögenburg