![\"warhorse\"](\"http:\/\/spiritsdancing.com\/blog\/2008\/warhorse.jpg\")
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Warhorse<\/em>, showing at the National Theatre<\/a> in London, has some absolutely stunning life-size horse puppets, designed and made by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler from the South African Handspring Puppet Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n Made of cane and gauze, plywood and bicycle brake-cable, nylon cord and leather, they are moved from the inside by actors, who can clearly be seen through the horses’ skeletal bamboo frames; another human steers the head, so that the steeds nuzzle, twitch their ears, shiver with fear, rear in fright, roll their lustrous eyes; they also neigh and snicker. The actors are the inner lives of the beasts: when one horse dies, sinking to its knees and then lying, as a silvery grey skeleton, on its side, you see the puppeteers rolling out of the frame as if they were a band of souls leaving a body. After battle, the stage is covered in emptied carcasses, like dressmakers’ dummies. – Suzannah Clapp, review in The Guardian<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Guardian also has a gallery of images<\/a> that tell the story, as well as providing the best photographs of the puppets that I have come across. Of course, much of the magic is in their movement: there is a glimpse of that in this ‘what the audience thinks’ video<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are some other reviews at The Independent<\/a>, Daily Telegraph<\/a>, The Times<\/a>, and the London Theatre Guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n