War Horse to premiere in Beijing

The stage play War Horse rehearses in Beijing on Aug 24, 2015. [Photo/CFP]

"The three actors manipulating horse puppets cannot communicate with language or even have eye contacts during performance. Their collaboration merely relies on the movements of the horse. For example, when a horse lifts up its head, its body has to make correspondent adjustment in its respiration. In the meantime, its legs also change postures," said the Chinese horse puppet director Liu Xiayi.

Li Dong, Chinese producer of the Chinese War Horse, displayed around 1,500 costume designs during the media event, as well as original military uniforms made by British ordnance factories and stereo boxes weighing 1,000 kilograms each.

Technological synthesis of the play started on Aug 6 at the National Theater of China in Beijing, with nearly 200 technologists participating in the work, as Li revealed. For the first time, the National Theater arranged a window period of over 1 month to help the preparation work as much as possible.

Slated for 50 shows at the National Theater starting on Sept 4, War Horse will continue its tour to Shanghai joining the Shanghai International Arts Festival and stage 64 shows before stopping in Guangzhou and finally Tianjin. Performances in Hangzhou are also expected in 2017.