London Shakespeare fest for "world's playwright"

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By Alice Baghdjian

LONDON | Tue Sep 6, 2011 2:46pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - All the world's a stage in Shakespeare's home country as organizers announced the launch of the World Shakespeare Festival in London on Tuesday.

The April 23 to November 2012 festival, conceived as part of London 2012 Festival and described as an "unprecedented and outrageous collaboration" by organizers, is set to unite Shakespeare fans from across the globe in a multicultural and polyglot appreciation of the Bard in a technological age.

"Previous festivals of Shakespeare have been an old kind of festival, but this World Shakespeare Festival is for a new era," Deborah Shaw, World Shakespeare Festival Director.

A "World Wide Classroom," allowing teachers and pupils around the world to share information about Shakespeare in their culture, as well as the launch of specially commissioned digital materials for schools called "Shakespeare Unlocked," means that participation in the festival is not limited to the people of Britain.

"Four years ago, we began conversations with artists, producers, educationalists and curators from across the UK and the World, to seed and shape a festival that celebrates Shakespeare and redefines what a festival can be in this era of globalization," Shaw said.

"Anyone in the world can take part in this Shakespeare festival through its digital projects," she said.

The launch comes as the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and the British Council revealed that 50 percent of the world's children study Shakespeare in school.

The more traditional festival staple of performances of the Bard's works will include a lineup of all 37 of his plays in 37 languages at Shakespeare's Globe Theater on the banks of the river Thames in London. One million tickets will be on sale from Oct 10.

Theater goers can expect performances in Xhosa and Swahili, as well as theater companies from Turkey, Greece, Albania, and even a group from New Zealand performing in Maori.

WORLD'S PLAYWRIGHT

The festival program will also feature 23 brand new productions across Britain, most of which were commissioned specially for the festival.

"The festival will be a carnival of stories - we have theater companies from warzones as well as underground theater companies participating," said Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director at the Globe.

"A Globe by the Thames is where the wonderful cultural and imaginative journey of these plays began. Another Globe by the Thames is honored to be inviting Shakespeare back home, dressed in the clothes of many different people," he said.

It is Shakespeare's depiction of human qualities which lends to the success and resonance of his works in other cultures, making him "the world's playwright," organizers say.

"Shakespeare is no longer English property. He is the favorite playwright and artist of the whole world. People of all races, creeds and continents have chosen to gather around his work to share stories of what it is like to be human," said Michael Boyd, artistic director of the RSC.

"Shakespeare is a lingua franca deeper than just any language. It can help us to talk about autocracy and civil war -- his works are a brilliant Trojan horse," he said.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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Free drama of popular protest rocks London stage

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(This story contains graphic language)

By Barbara Lewis

LONDON (Reuters) - The spirit of the Arab Spring has found theatrical expression, with the help of one of Britain's celebrated iconoclasts, at a venue next door to the capital's mayor.

Mark Ravenhill, made famous by his 1990s debut play "Shopping and Fucking," has written a modernized version of German playwright Bertolt Brecht's "The Mother," which examines an early 20th-century protest that has taken on contemporary force.

In keeping with Brecht's popularism, there is no entry charge and by the end of the season on September 4, this fable of uprising against oppressive authority will have been performed to more than a quarter of a million people for free.

"There is renewed interest in what happens when people protest and demonstrate," Ravenhill told Reuters of his decision to revive the play.

Ravenhill's first play Shopping and Fucking stirred controversy because of its sexually violent content, but was hailed for its expose of rampant consumerism and as a prime example of the British "in-yer-face-theater" of the 1990s.

Since then, he has worked on a range of projects, including sell-out performances at this summer's Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, and he is writing a libretto for an opera to be staged in Oslo.

For Ravenhill, Brecht has particularly wide resonance and could speak to the Middle Eastern and North African countries that have protested against their governments, beginning with uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt at the start of this year.

"Brecht's plays really travel. They have a fable-like quality," said Ravenhill. "You can really imagine an Arab audience understanding The Mother."

In addition to providing the text, Ravenhill will act one of the play's characters for the final performances of the season.

UNCONVENTIONAL CONTEXT

For him, The Scoop open-air theater next to London Mayor Boris Johnson's City Hall headquarters on the south bank of the River Thames was a particularly appropriate venue.

"It was written to be taken outside the conventional context," said Ravenhill of The Mother, in which a mother, initially politically neutral, becomes a forthright champion of the socialist cause.

"The idea it is totally free creates a really special atmosphere. You get a different audience and you get a different attitude."

The London-based Steam Industry Free Theater Limited, producer of the performances, said the audience has included many who have never before been to the theater, which can be a middle-class bastion.

Provided it can continue to drum up funding in a climate of deep cuts, especially to the arts, the Steam Industry will next year celebrate its 10th season of delivering critically acclaimed free theater at The Scoop.

"There's not a penny available yet there's the expectation we will pull something impressive out of the bag," said Phil Willmott, artistic director of the project.

So far, he said pockets of sponsorship and public donations had been enough for the free theater to keep going "by the skin of its teeth."

Next August's plan to stage the "Oresteia" trilogy, written by Aeschylus, to a non-paying audience many of whom will probably know little about classical Greek drama, could be the most ambitious project yet.

It will again be highly topical as it will coincide with London's 2012 hosting of the Olympic Games, another pillar of classical Greek culture.

The trilogy celebrates "the ethos from which the games were born with the epic Greek drama cycle of the people," said Willmott.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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Lang Lang phenomenon hits London, with 50 pianos

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Chinese pianist Lang Lang plays one of the pianos from the 'Lang Lang Piano Series' during a news conference in Hong Kong April 27, 2007.

Credit: Reuters/Paul Yeung

By Alastair Macdonald

LONDON | Wed May 18, 2011 12:19pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - A hundred youngsters playing 50 pianos all at once may not sound like everyone's idea of a musical treat, but it's a sellout at London's Royal Festival Hall this coming Sunday.

Call it the "Lang Lang Effect."

The 28-year-old Chinese piano phenomenon, who has brought popstar glamour to the classical concert circuit, landed in Britain this week on what he says is a mission to bring music -- both playing and listening -- to a wider, younger generation.

"Lang Lang Inspires," a six-day series of recitals and public events at the Southbank Center, has also given audiences an opportunity to judge the musical merits of a pianist who has divided critics with his showmanship and prodigious technique.

Hailed by some as among the world's finest, whose success has inspired millions of Chinese youngsters to take up classical piano -- dubbed the "Lang Lang Effect" -- others hear a lack of artistic sensibility beneath the dramatic keyboard skills.

"The new generation's Liberace," sniffed one London critic.

A hard-graft childhood in industrial Shenyang, inspired aged 2 by a piano playing cat in a "Tom & Jerry" cartoon and driven by a fiercely ambitious father, led to international acclaim and work with some of the world's leading orchestras and conductors.

Five minutes of standing ovations and a double encore for a rapturous full house after Tuesday's opening solo recital left little doubt of the adulation the spiky-haired maestro inspires among a fan base that extends far beyond the high-brow crowd.

The clamor for autographs and the flashing of mobile phone cameras, the cries of "Wow!" and "Amazing!, were all in an evening's work for the young man the New York Times called "the hottest artist on the classical music planet" -- and that was before he played the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"CIRCUS TIME"

Some critics were less kind, conceding his dexterity and ability but questioning the artistic interpretation he brought to a program of Bach, Schubert and Chopin.

After the first two pieces, "It was circus time," wrote Michael Church in the Independent. "Of course he played Chopin's Etudes brilliantly -- he's an indisputably brilliant pianist -- but he consistently went for effects at the expense of poetry."

Ismene Brown, writing on the theartsdesk.com, saw a talent for publicity as perhaps the greatest skill of "this showman with his precious, kittenish phrasing and facial expressions" whom she called "the new generation's Liberace."

Yet even Brown also heard a moment of beauty: "Suddenly, in the 12th Etude ... for two minutes I was totally upended.

"Here, suddenly, was a little boy who'd practiced hour upon hour against the metronome, sweeping those huge arpeggios up and down the piano without cease. The furious technical challenge in which he found liberation for his soul pierced my heart.

"Deep, very deep, down inside Lang Lang there could be a sincere and humble musician -- but is it a priority for him, amid all this adulation?"

The pianist himself describes his priority as inspiring a wider audience: "It's an honor to have the ability to inspire kids. At the same time, it's a responsibility," he said in the program notes for the week, which will end with 100 children aged from 5 to 24 joining him on stage at 50 pianos on Sunday.

In that mission of popularizing his music, he seems to be succeeding. One man who heard him for the first time on Tuesday rushed to share his emotions on Lang Lang's Twitter feed:

"My first experience of a classical concert seeing you tonight," Jack Squires wrote. "I feel inspired by your talent."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

(More details of this week's program are here)

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Chinese pianist Lang Lang plays one of the pianos from the 'Lang Lang Piano Series' during a news conference in Hong Kong April 27, 2007.

Credit: Reuters/Paul Yeung

By Alastair Macdonald

LONDON | Wed May 18, 2011 12:19pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - A hundred youngsters playing 50 pianos all at once may not sound like everyone's idea of a musical treat, but it's a sellout at London's Royal Festival Hall this coming Sunday.

Call it the "Lang Lang Effect."

The 28-year-old Chinese piano phenomenon, who has brought popstar glamour to the classical concert circuit, landed in Britain this week on what he says is a mission to bring music -- both playing and listening -- to a wider, younger generation.

"Lang Lang Inspires," a six-day series of recitals and public events at the Southbank Center, has also given audiences an opportunity to judge the musical merits of a pianist who has divided critics with his showmanship and prodigious technique.

Hailed by some as among the world's finest, whose success has inspired millions of Chinese youngsters to take up classical piano -- dubbed the "Lang Lang Effect" -- others hear a lack of artistic sensibility beneath the dramatic keyboard skills.

"The new generation's Liberace," sniffed one London critic.

A hard-graft childhood in industrial Shenyang, inspired aged 2 by a piano playing cat in a "Tom & Jerry" cartoon and driven by a fiercely ambitious father, led to international acclaim and work with some of the world's leading orchestras and conductors.

Five minutes of standing ovations and a double encore for a rapturous full house after Tuesday's opening solo recital left little doubt of the adulation the spiky-haired maestro inspires among a fan base that extends far beyond the high-brow crowd.

The clamor for autographs and the flashing of mobile phone cameras, the cries of "Wow!" and "Amazing!, were all in an evening's work for the young man the New York Times called "the hottest artist on the classical music planet" -- and that was before he played the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"CIRCUS TIME"

Some critics were less kind, conceding his dexterity and ability but questioning the artistic interpretation he brought to a program of Bach, Schubert and Chopin.

After the first two pieces, "It was circus time," wrote Michael Church in the Independent. "Of course he played Chopin's Etudes brilliantly -- he's an indisputably brilliant pianist -- but he consistently went for effects at the expense of poetry."

Ismene Brown, writing on the theartsdesk.com, saw a talent for publicity as perhaps the greatest skill of "this showman with his precious, kittenish phrasing and facial expressions" whom she called "the new generation's Liberace."

Yet even Brown also heard a moment of beauty: "Suddenly, in the 12th Etude ... for two minutes I was totally upended.

"Here, suddenly, was a little boy who'd practiced hour upon hour against the metronome, sweeping those huge arpeggios up and down the piano without cease. The furious technical challenge in which he found liberation for his soul pierced my heart.

"Deep, very deep, down inside Lang Lang there could be a sincere and humble musician -- but is it a priority for him, amid all this adulation?"

The pianist himself describes his priority as inspiring a wider audience: "It's an honor to have the ability to inspire kids. At the same time, it's a responsibility," he said in the program notes for the week, which will end with 100 children aged from 5 to 24 joining him on stage at 50 pianos on Sunday.

In that mission of popularizing his music, he seems to be succeeding. One man who heard him for the first time on Tuesday rushed to share his emotions on Lang Lang's Twitter feed:

"My first experience of a classical concert seeing you tonight," Jack Squires wrote. "I feel inspired by your talent."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

(More details of this week's program are here)

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Chinese pianist Lang Lang plays one of the pianos from the 'Lang Lang Piano Series' during a news conference in Hong Kong April 27, 2007.

Credit: Reuters/Paul Yeung

By Alastair Macdonald

LONDON | Wed May 18, 2011 12:19pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - A hundred youngsters playing 50 pianos all at once may not sound like everyone's idea of a musical treat, but it's a sellout at London's Royal Festival Hall this coming Sunday.

Call it the "Lang Lang Effect."

The 28-year-old Chinese piano phenomenon, who has brought popstar glamour to the classical concert circuit, landed in Britain this week on what he says is a mission to bring music -- both playing and listening -- to a wider, younger generation.

"Lang Lang Inspires," a six-day series of recitals and public events at the Southbank Center, has also given audiences an opportunity to judge the musical merits of a pianist who has divided critics with his showmanship and prodigious technique.

Hailed by some as among the world's finest, whose success has inspired millions of Chinese youngsters to take up classical piano -- dubbed the "Lang Lang Effect" -- others hear a lack of artistic sensibility beneath the dramatic keyboard skills.

"The new generation's Liberace," sniffed one London critic.

A hard-graft childhood in industrial Shenyang, inspired aged 2 by a piano playing cat in a "Tom & Jerry" cartoon and driven by a fiercely ambitious father, led to international acclaim and work with some of the world's leading orchestras and conductors.

Five minutes of standing ovations and a double encore for a rapturous full house after Tuesday's opening solo recital left little doubt of the adulation the spiky-haired maestro inspires among a fan base that extends far beyond the high-brow crowd.

The clamor for autographs and the flashing of mobile phone cameras, the cries of "Wow!" and "Amazing!, were all in an evening's work for the young man the New York Times called "the hottest artist on the classical music planet" -- and that was before he played the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"CIRCUS TIME"

Some critics were less kind, conceding his dexterity and ability but questioning the artistic interpretation he brought to a program of Bach, Schubert and Chopin.

After the first two pieces, "It was circus time," wrote Michael Church in the Independent. "Of course he played Chopin's Etudes brilliantly -- he's an indisputably brilliant pianist -- but he consistently went for effects at the expense of poetry."

Ismene Brown, writing on the theartsdesk.com, saw a talent for publicity as perhaps the greatest skill of "this showman with his precious, kittenish phrasing and facial expressions" whom she called "the new generation's Liberace."

Yet even Brown also heard a moment of beauty: "Suddenly, in the 12th Etude ... for two minutes I was totally upended.

"Here, suddenly, was a little boy who'd practiced hour upon hour against the metronome, sweeping those huge arpeggios up and down the piano without cease. The furious technical challenge in which he found liberation for his soul pierced my heart.

"Deep, very deep, down inside Lang Lang there could be a sincere and humble musician -- but is it a priority for him, amid all this adulation?"

The pianist himself describes his priority as inspiring a wider audience: "It's an honor to have the ability to inspire kids. At the same time, it's a responsibility," he said in the program notes for the week, which will end with 100 children aged from 5 to 24 joining him on stage at 50 pianos on Sunday.

In that mission of popularizing his music, he seems to be succeeding. One man who heard him for the first time on Tuesday rushed to share his emotions on Lang Lang's Twitter feed:

"My first experience of a classical concert seeing you tonight," Jack Squires wrote. "I feel inspired by your talent."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

(More details of this week's program are here)

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London hit "War Horse" makes thrilling Broadway bow

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By David Rooney

Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:14am EDT

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - It's easy to see what attracted Steven Spielberg to British children's author Michael Morpugo's novel "War Horse."

But it's hard to imagine how the screen version, due in December, can improve upon the thrilling experience of this stage adaptation, which is as emotionally stirring, visually arresting and compellingly told as anything on the filmmaker's resume.

Produced by London's National Theater, the play premiered in 2007 and went on after two sell-out engagements to become a smash in the West End, where it's still running. This Broadway transfer makes tremendous use of the deep stage and various aisles of Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater, creating a spectacle both intimate and epic. The limited run is scheduled through June 26, but rapturous word of mouth seems certain to change that to an open-ended stay.

Adapted by Nick Stafford in association with the Handspring Puppet Company, the play is specific in its historic setting of World War I, yet any concerns about American audiences' distance from that conflict are unfounded. The writer and creative team make this story universal in its reflections on war, its consideration of how we define courage and cowardice, and its portrayal of the purest kind of love.

Comparisons to "The Lion King" are inevitable but also facile. While the puppetry designs of South African company Handspring and its founders Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones are the undisputed stars here, this is an entirely different, far more emotionally immersive experience than the Disney show. It belongs to a rich tradition of British story-theater that favors artisanal craftsmanship over technology. When it works, as it does so exquisitely here, this can be as transporting for adults as it is for children.

Operated onstage by teams of three or more puppeteers, the life-size horses are breathtaking in their detail. The designs eschew naturalism for constructions of leather, cloth, cane and wire that share every secret of the mechanisms involved. Yet, in every way -- their breathing, their flaring nostrils, twitching ears and soulful eyes, their powerful flanks and movements that can be skittish or graceful -- these are not cute facsimiles but flesh-and-blood creatures. What's remarkable is how quickly the puppeteers, who also provide vocal sounds for the horses, vanish through sheer force of imagination.

Directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris with a fluid narrative grasp and seamless cohesion between design and performance elements, the show follows the life of a horse named Joey from birth. As a foal, Joey appears to grow before our eyes before being purchased by Ted Narracott (Boris McGiver), a Devon farmer. Ted pays a ridiculous amount for the horse merely to outbid his brother Arthur (T. Ryder Smith), their bitter rivalry shared by their respective sons, Albert (Seth Numrich) and Billy (Matt Doyle). When Ted's feisty wife Rose (Alyssa Bresnahan) learns that the mortgage money has gone on a horse not even bred for farm work, she orders 16-year-old Albert to raise the animal until it's healthy enough to fetch a good price.

Joey's speed and strength attract Arthur's attention, resulting in a bet with Ted that the horse cannot be trained to pull a plow. When Albert's perseverance wins his father the bet, he also becomes Joey's owner, nixing any plan to sell. But when Britain goes to war, and large sums are being paid for cavalry horses, Ted sells Joey to the army behind his son's back.

Word reaches Albert that the officer riding Joey has been killed, so he runs off to France, lies about his age and enlists, determined to find the animal. Joey, meanwhile, has been captured by the Germans and put to work pulling an ambulance cart in a casualty clearance station in the Somme Valley.

The battle scenes are stylized, almost balletic at times, yet charged and visceral. The horror of horses being ridden into barbed wire and machine-gun fire yields particularly distressing moments. One striking stage picture, in which a horse and a tank rear up in each other's paths, provides a wrenching illustration of the conflict of nature with the machine age. But despite its penetrating sorrows, the overriding tenderness of this story of how a boy and his horse endure the brutality of war will leave few in the audience unmoved.

One could nitpick that the directors overuse the folk songs and battle anthems that punctuate the action, or that Stafford's writing is at times simplistic in explicating its themes, notably in a face-to-face encounter between a British and a German soldier. But overall, the presentation and writing are sentimental in the noblest possible way.

While the actors can't quite compete with the majestic beauty of the puppets (which include ravens and an ornery goose), the American cast all contribute vivid characterizations and total commitment to the illusion that these animals are real.

Numrich brings heartbreaking conviction to Albert's love of Joey and his almost unwavering faith that the horse has survived. In a uniformly strong ensemble, Peter Hermann also makes a deep impression as a German who assumes a medical officer's identity to avoid returning to the front. This character typifies the play's refusal to break down antagonists into villains and heroes, but rather to show that everyone is a victim in war.

It's impossible to overstate the effectiveness of Rae Smith's gorgeous design work. Its most evocative element is the torn page of a sketchbook overhead, which maps the shifting action and changing atmosphere with a mix of pencil drawings and projections.

In its blending of modern and traditional storytelling, its poetic imagery and primal emotion, this is the kind of magical theater event that comes along only rarely. As an introduction to the stage for young audiences, "War Horse" has the uplifting power to make lifelong converts. For more seasoned theatergoers, it has the elegance and inventiveness to erase the jaded memories of dozens of more cynical entertainments.

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By David Rooney

Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:14am EDT

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - It's easy to see what attracted Steven Spielberg to British children's author Michael Morpugo's novel "War Horse."

But it's hard to imagine how the screen version, due in December, can improve upon the thrilling experience of this stage adaptation, which is as emotionally stirring, visually arresting and compellingly told as anything on the filmmaker's resume.

Produced by London's National Theater, the play premiered in 2007 and went on after two sell-out engagements to become a smash in the West End, where it's still running. This Broadway transfer makes tremendous use of the deep stage and various aisles of Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater, creating a spectacle both intimate and epic. The limited run is scheduled through June 26, but rapturous word of mouth seems certain to change that to an open-ended stay.

Adapted by Nick Stafford in association with the Handspring Puppet Company, the play is specific in its historic setting of World War I, yet any concerns about American audiences' distance from that conflict are unfounded. The writer and creative team make this story universal in its reflections on war, its consideration of how we define courage and cowardice, and its portrayal of the purest kind of love.

Comparisons to "The Lion King" are inevitable but also facile. While the puppetry designs of South African company Handspring and its founders Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones are the undisputed stars here, this is an entirely different, far more emotionally immersive experience than the Disney show. It belongs to a rich tradition of British story-theater that favors artisanal craftsmanship over technology. When it works, as it does so exquisitely here, this can be as transporting for adults as it is for children.

Operated onstage by teams of three or more puppeteers, the life-size horses are breathtaking in their detail. The designs eschew naturalism for constructions of leather, cloth, cane and wire that share every secret of the mechanisms involved. Yet, in every way -- their breathing, their flaring nostrils, twitching ears and soulful eyes, their powerful flanks and movements that can be skittish or graceful -- these are not cute facsimiles but flesh-and-blood creatures. What's remarkable is how quickly the puppeteers, who also provide vocal sounds for the horses, vanish through sheer force of imagination.

Directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris with a fluid narrative grasp and seamless cohesion between design and performance elements, the show follows the life of a horse named Joey from birth. As a foal, Joey appears to grow before our eyes before being purchased by Ted Narracott (Boris McGiver), a Devon farmer. Ted pays a ridiculous amount for the horse merely to outbid his brother Arthur (T. Ryder Smith), their bitter rivalry shared by their respective sons, Albert (Seth Numrich) and Billy (Matt Doyle). When Ted's feisty wife Rose (Alyssa Bresnahan) learns that the mortgage money has gone on a horse not even bred for farm work, she orders 16-year-old Albert to raise the animal until it's healthy enough to fetch a good price.

Joey's speed and strength attract Arthur's attention, resulting in a bet with Ted that the horse cannot be trained to pull a plow. When Albert's perseverance wins his father the bet, he also becomes Joey's owner, nixing any plan to sell. But when Britain goes to war, and large sums are being paid for cavalry horses, Ted sells Joey to the army behind his son's back.

Word reaches Albert that the officer riding Joey has been killed, so he runs off to France, lies about his age and enlists, determined to find the animal. Joey, meanwhile, has been captured by the Germans and put to work pulling an ambulance cart in a casualty clearance station in the Somme Valley.

The battle scenes are stylized, almost balletic at times, yet charged and visceral. The horror of horses being ridden into barbed wire and machine-gun fire yields particularly distressing moments. One striking stage picture, in which a horse and a tank rear up in each other's paths, provides a wrenching illustration of the conflict of nature with the machine age. But despite its penetrating sorrows, the overriding tenderness of this story of how a boy and his horse endure the brutality of war will leave few in the audience unmoved.

One could nitpick that the directors overuse the folk songs and battle anthems that punctuate the action, or that Stafford's writing is at times simplistic in explicating its themes, notably in a face-to-face encounter between a British and a German soldier. But overall, the presentation and writing are sentimental in the noblest possible way.

While the actors can't quite compete with the majestic beauty of the puppets (which include ravens and an ornery goose), the American cast all contribute vivid characterizations and total commitment to the illusion that these animals are real.

Numrich brings heartbreaking conviction to Albert's love of Joey and his almost unwavering faith that the horse has survived. In a uniformly strong ensemble, Peter Hermann also makes a deep impression as a German who assumes a medical officer's identity to avoid returning to the front. This character typifies the play's refusal to break down antagonists into villains and heroes, but rather to show that everyone is a victim in war.

It's impossible to overstate the effectiveness of Rae Smith's gorgeous design work. Its most evocative element is the torn page of a sketchbook overhead, which maps the shifting action and changing atmosphere with a mix of pencil drawings and projections.

In its blending of modern and traditional storytelling, its poetic imagery and primal emotion, this is the kind of magical theater event that comes along only rarely. As an introduction to the stage for young audiences, "War Horse" has the uplifting power to make lifelong converts. For more seasoned theatergoers, it has the elegance and inventiveness to erase the jaded memories of dozens of more cynical entertainments.

Baloane