War Horse: Just how do they make Joey and Topthorne so realistic?

The National Theatre’s most successful production to date WAR HORSE is going on tour. Here, Everything Horse journalist, Katie Gilmour sits down with the Director of Puppetry Matthew Forbes to find out just how they make such magic on the stage.

Many will have seen the National Theatre’s incredible version of Michael Morpurgo’s best selling novel, War Horse. Morpurgo’s book sold over 35 millions copies worldwide in 37 languages, telling the incredibly important story of horses in the First World War.

Between 2005 and 2007, the National Theatre put together their most successful production to date. Premiering on the 9th October 2007 at the National Theatre, War Horse has won more than 25 major awards and has been seen by over 8.3 million people worldwide. It has won five Tony Awards® including Best Play, plus a Special Tony Award® for the Handspring Puppet Company in 2011. Since then, the story of Joey and Topthorn has been seen in 97 cities in 14 countries, including productions on Broadway, in Toronto and Berlin, with touring productions in the UK and Ireland, North America, the Netherlands and Belgium. And now – it’s back.

New UK tour

Beginning a national tour in Wimbledon this September, the company have worked once again with Adrian Kohler of the Handspring Puppet Company in South Africa to bring this tear jerking tale back to the stage, and it was a huge, incredibly emotional honour to spend time with the cast and crew at their rehearsal space at the Royal Ballet rehearsal rooms in the Docklands.

War Horse tells the remarkable story of a young boy called Albert and his horse Joey, set against the backdrop of the First World War. It is a show every horse lover should make sure they see – mainly because of the remarkable way that horses are depicted.

Matthew Forbes, Director of Puppetry, is the man that has the responsibility for how those horses appear on the stage. And not just for the horses – he has responsibility for how more than 20 puppets of various animals appear on stage. No pressure there, then…

Matthew has worked internationally in film, on stage, television, radio and animation. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and has since enjoyed a strong career as an actor, appearing on stage in prominent roles such as Zazu in the Lion King, as a director with a strong emphasis on puppetry and movement. His credits include Hansel & Gretel with the Nottingham Playhouse;  The Magic Flute with the Welsh National Opera; A Christmas Carol with the Nottingham Playhouse, Alexandra Palace and the BBC which also enjoyed cinema release… He has a very impressive CV.

Matthew performed in the original War Horse show in London’s West End, and left the show as a performer in 2012. He was invited back to the company to assist with the puppetry direction for the first UK tour.

“I’ve looked after the show now, all over the world,” Matthew said. “Be it a touring show or whether it be a sit down version of the show… All the different venues, all the different countries. I’ve done the show in English, I’ve done the show in Dutch, I’ve done the show in German, I’ve done the show in Mandarin. It’s a very exciting time for me to come back to it [for the new UK tour].”

I asked how he worked in countries with languages that he doesn’t speak: “It’s amazing how quickly you can pick up the rhythm of a language, even if you don’t speak it. The magic of puppetry is that it needs no translation and it works wherever you are. Those beautiful puppets encourage audiences to connect with them, regardless of language.”

Matthew grew up with horses, so it’s no surprise that he’s able to mimic their mannerisms.

An exciting combination

“Within the UK, we have a huge love of horses and we have a huge connection to the First World War. Those two things combined made something very exciting. For me, this show then and now is a hugely impressive feat of theatre: It’s not just a play. It’s an epic, spectacular piece of art.”

We move onto the puppets, and, having seen War Horse during its original West End run, I comment that it’s incredible how quickly you forget that the animals are puppets, and accept them as characters. The horses, Joey and Topthorne, are incredibly moving, but it’s more than that; the goose, the dogs… They all seem, well, real.

“I think the beauty of this show is that it invites the audience to really engage that childlike imagination. Suddenly, the horses become real and you no longer see the puppeteers. We never actively hide them – you can see them, they’re wearing costumes. We don’t disguise them. But your imagination just takes hold. The biggest compliment for us is when a horse lover says, ‘Yes. That’s what a horse would do.’”

But what of the puppets themselves? There is something deeply emotional about them. Their height, their presence… The fact that they breathe and react the way a horse would. On arrival, I walked past the foal Joey. It was all I could do not to go over to play with him. My head knows I’m looking at a puppet, but somehow my heart has already accepted him as a real foal.

“The puppets are beautiful,” Matthew says. “They’re made by the Handspring Puppet Company in South Africa. They have a metal frame on the inside, with wood that’s soaked for 48-hours so that it becomes pliable and this is then moulded into the shape of the horse. Actually making the horses think like horses though, takes a lot of work with the puppeteers.”

Physical demands

The puppeteers have a huge task. Not only do they have to bring these impressive puppets to life, but the physical demands on their own bodies are immense.

“The puppets weigh around ten stone, and none of the weight goes through the legs of the puppet. The puppeteers must take the weight. We spend a lot of time doing physio, strength building, stamina building… They are athletes on stage. Every single time the horse takes a step, a puppeteer has squeezed a trigger.”

“There are three puppeteers per horse. A hind puppeteer, a heart puppeteer and the head puppeteer. With a rider on board, the weight of the horse and the rider is carried by the hind and the heart puppeteer. We have very personalised fitness programme for each part of the horse. They do a brilliant job, and we are lucky to be so well resourced at the National [Theatre].”

The company originally worked with Monty Roberts to learn about join up and horse behaviour, but perhaps the puppeteers’ training is more apt now, given the time in history that the show depicts.

“We want them to be believable; we don’t want them to be Disney horses, or the funny guy. As part of the rehearsal process, we take the company to see real horses. We have members of the company that have never touched a horse. As people that know horses, we know the direction that their coat is going to go, but somebody that doesn’t know that, may stroke them the wrong way, and the audience would pick up on that.”

The company engage with horses early on in the production process to ensure that the interaction is believable: “We work a lot with the Household Cavalry,” Matthew explains. “And lots of other horse charities. We’ve been to the Horse’s Trust [where cavalry horses retire to], the King’s Troop… Those trips are really vital.”

Staying fresh

“We have four teams of puppeteers. Whilst there’s only two horses, we have four teams and they all rotate during the week,” Matthew explained. “If you were to have see the show on a Tuesday night, you might see a cheeky Joey. Then if you saw a show on the Wednesday matinee, you might see a more fiery Joey, because it would be a different team. That keeps it fresh for the audience, but also incredibly exciting for the actors on stage.”

The horses and the actors can change their responses to each other accordingly, offering a more realistic portrayal of human and equine interaction, which in turn affects the energy of the War Horse performers.

“You can never see a boring version of this show,” Matthew continues. “You never see a stale version of it with tired actors because they’ve been doing it for six months. That just doesn’t happen on this show.”

In Horse and Unadorned

“We have two terms,” Matthew replies when I ask how long the puppeteers can be ‘in puppet’. “‘In Horse’ and ‘Unadorned’. We do have to be careful how long the puppeteers stay In Horse, but we do find that when we ask the teams to swap, they don’t want to! There’s a real magic in working as a team of three to bring one thing to life, to be so in tune with each other and listening to each other and responding to each other. You can’t have an ego.”

When the War Horse performers are In Horse, they take on the character so completely that they will not talk to you if you talk to them. Three people become one horse, and watching them work together to bring the horse to life is sheer poetry. I know they cannot talk to me, but equally, I don’t want them to. I’ve forgotten they’re there.

“Because we keep the horses so alive, there’s been a few moments when the horses have met royalty. I think its perhaps the only time that someone has not answered a member of the Royal Family! That absolute commitment to the horse is magical, and it means that whenever anyone sees the horses, they are real.”

I’m reminded of the Velveteen Rabbit: ‘Once you are real, you can’t become unreal again; it lasts for always’, and watching Matthew work with the puppeteers and Joey is remarkable. He frequently calls him a good boy and lays a hand on him. His own behaviour is that of a horseman training his horse, which perhaps is why Joey and Topthorne, like the Velveteen Rabbit, will always be loved so much that they are real.

Listen to Poles, Piaffe & Prosecco’s interview with Matthew Forbes: Poles, Piaffe & Prosecco podcast.

Watch Grand Prix dressage rider and trainer Tania Grantham teach Joey how to piaffe: Poles, Piaffe & Prosecco Podcast You Tube Channel and subscribe to enjoy more related videos.

Buy your tickets to the National Theatre’s UK tour of War Horse here: War Horse website.

But how close is the depiction of Joey and Topthorne to the real war horses? Click back next week to find out how horses were kept in World War One with the National Army Museum’s Belinda Day.


Katie Gilmour is the host of Poles, Piaffe & Prosecco: the podcast for riders that love to train, laugh and drink prosecco! The podcast is free to listen to on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

*Additional reporting by Tania Grantham.