Jealous of his cousin Albert, Ned convinces his father to get Ted drunk and make a bet: if Joey (bred and trained as a hunter, not a plough horse) can be taught to plough within a week, Arthur will pay Ted 39 guineas, the auction price.

The boy names the foal Joey, and forms a strong bond with the horse during training. Their son Albert promises to raise the foal and train him for sale. Ted's wife Rose fears they will lose their farm. At the auction, Ted used money reserved to pay his farm mortgage. Ted is the local drunkard and thought to be a coward, for refusing to have fought together with his brother in the earlier Boer War in South Africa. Hoping to give it to his son Ned, Arthur Narracott bids on the foal instead, his brother Ted competes with him and bids 30 guineas-an exorbitant amount that Arthur can't meet - and wins the foal. SynopsisĪ foal is auctioned for sale in Devon, the United Kingdom. The play's West End and Broadway productions are directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris it features life-size horse puppets by the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa, with ' horse choreography' by Toby Sedgwick. Originally Morpurgo thought 'they must be mad' to try to make a play from his best-selling 1982 novel but the play was a great success. War Horse is a play based on the book of the same name by writer Michael Morpurgo, adapted for stage by Nick Stafford. National Theatre (London) Lincoln Center Theater (New York) Princess of Wales Theatre (Toronto)

War horse play script downloads