The puppets in War Horse are handmade by 14 of Handspring’s craftsmen and women. Joey, Topthorn and Joey as a foal are each operated by three puppeteers – called the head, the heart and the hind – who work together to bring the equine puppets to life on stage. Diane de Beer spoke to the only live South African connection on stage, Richard Vorster, who alternates between Joey and Topthorn’s heads.
WITH all the excitement bubbling around South Africa’s first chance to see the magnificent War Horse, it’s difficult to believe actor Richard Vorster almost chose accounting as a career.
“It’s something I was good at,” he says, almost resigned about how his mind was working when he left school.
He had completed almost two years when, during a lecture, a lecturer remarked that if this was not your passion, you shouldn’t be in the room.
“I knew I was in the wrong place,” says the young South African, who is on the brink of one of his most exciting seasons yet as the actor who manipulates the head of Joey, the war horse of the title.
The lecturer’s comment was “the catalyst” for him. He was off immediately to auditions in London, where he hoped to study. But before moving to the UK in 2008 to study at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, he had a few acting stints back home and a South Korean tour of Jesus Christ Superstar in 2007.
But from very early on, Vorster had his heart set on War Horse.
“I was urged by friends to see it and bought tickets in the front row. I was mesmerised and amazed that puppets could do this and have such an effect.”
From that moment, as he tells it, he had a bee in his bonnet: “I wanted to be part of the show and worked hard at puppeteering.”
He wondered how to stand out.
One of the things he did was to return home, visit the Handspring Puppet Company’s studios and workshops and improve his skills in puppetry. He wanted this badly. He even had a two-hour session with Janni Younge, an associate director at the company and a winner of the Young Artist Award for her artistry.
“She helped me lots,” says Vorster, who was pretty much a novice then.
He didn’t get the part the first time around, although he seemed to have all the advantages, but he was told to keep trying.
When he heard about the auditions for the UK and Ireland tour, he knew he had a chance.
“I just kept pushing.”
Vorster knew it was worth going for. At the time, there was no mention of a South African tour. But that wasn’t the driving force then – he wanted to be part of this inspiring production brought alive by the exhilarating imagination of the Handspring Puppet Company’s Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler.
It’s amazing to think that these two local lads have two shows playing internationally wowing audiences with their works of wonder: War Horse is running in the West End and many cities around the world, while Ubu and the Truth Commission, which played at the Edinburgh Festival, is jetting off to different parts of the world.
Touring the UK was brilliant for Vorster because it also gave him the chance to see the country he had adopted for a while.
“Audiences love this one,” he says. “It’s everyone’s story and connects with everybody.”
Describing his performance, he says each horse has three puppeteers: one is responsible for the head, the other the heart and the third the hind.
“There are four puppetry teams and each horse has a distinct character. Joey is cheeky and slightly rough and tumble. He is built for comfort not speed.”
They alternated as a team between Joey and Topthorn, which is a much sleeker proposition.
Apart from the many skills they need for their tasks, the actors need stamina. Sometimes they have to hold their hands in the air for as long as 20 minutes at a stretch.
“Craig Leo, the associate puppetry director, swears by yoga and we do 40 minutes of warm-up before performances. I also do three to four sessions in the gym every week.”
It’s about connecting with the horse by breathing, Vorster says. It’s the way they become one that allows the puppeteer to disappear.
“We’re fully costumed and the audience can see us through-out, they’re looking at us, but at some point we get lost in the magnificence of the horses.”
That is, of course, the charm – that such hard work by a group of young actors can bring a horse to life.
And it is all about the horses and the puppetry. That’s what has made this production such a worldwide phenomenon.
“It’s also about instinct and impulses. When you work well as a team, it becomes like one organism. Three personalities come together.”
Vorster tells how they get to know one another and how, as if by magic, they find a way of communicating.
“It’s fantastic, because every group works differently. But it’s complete ensemble playing, which is extraordinary and exciting when it works. You’re in control, but with the help of others.”
Every once in a while, one of them throws a curveball.
“But we have deft hands by now.”
It’s about looking for people without ego. It’s also so strenuous that each can do only four shows in succession, before being replaced and returning a few shows later.
That’s also why the head puppeteers alternate between the two horses and play one of the soldiers on a “rest” night.
“I was gutted when I didn’t get it the first time around,” he says.
But being part of this particular cast means it was a blessing in disguise.
“Now all my friends and family can see it,” Vorster says, laughing. “It’s a show that has to be seen to be believed.”
Home on the stage for SA’s war horse
THIS week the global theatre phenomenon War Horse, presented in South Africa by Pieter Toerien, Rand Merchant Bank and The National Theatre of Great Britain, in association with Handspring Puppet Company, opens at the Artscape Opera House.
War Horse is the coming-of-age tale of a young boy, Albert, and his adored horse, Joey, who has been bought to fight for the British in World War I. Based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, who has written over 100 books and was Children’s Laureate from 2003 to 2005, War Horse has captured imaginations around the world with both the play and the Steven Spielberg movie.
But, says the writer, even though Joey has become something of a local celebrity and is much loved in the small community where he lives, “he is now going back to his other home, to Basil and Adrian, to the Handspring Puppet company, to the people who, with The National Theatre of Great Britain, conceived him, made him, grew him and transformed him from a gleam in my eye, from a horse on the page to a horse on the stage, and what a horse! Now Joey, in the mind’s eyes of the millions who have seen him, is the Handspring Joey, the South African Joey, your Joey and our Joey – everyone’s Joey.”
During its successful run on Broadway, War Horse received five Tony Awards, plus a special Tony for the Handspring Puppet Company. It is in its seventh successful year on the West End in London. The play has also been staged in Canada, the US, Australia, the Netherlands (in Dutch), Germany (in German), the UK and Ireland.
• War Horse runs at the Artscape Opera House from Friday until January 4. R100 to R450 at Computicket:
0861 915 8000. Bock bookings: [email protected], 021 438 3301. No under-10s.