War Horse

I want you to do yourself proud, Joey. You go and drive those Germans back where they've come from, and then come home to me.

At the outbreak of World War one, Joey, young Albert's beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. Caught up in enemy fire, fate takes Joey on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man's land. But Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to find him and bring him home.

War Horse was revived for a major UK tour in 2024-2025. The playtext has a brand new cover to coincide with the tour, but it still contains the original text, first published in 2007.

Nick Stafford's adaptation for the stage of the celebrated novel by the Children's Laureate (2003-05) Michael Morpurgo leads us on a gripping journey through history. War Horse premiered at the National Theatre, London, in October 2007.

Nick Stafford's stage plays include The Canal Ghost, The Whisper of Angels' Wings, Moll Cutpurse, The Snow Queen, Listen with dA dA, The Devil's Only Sleeping, The Go Between, Battle Royal, Luminosity, Love Me Tonight, Katherine Desouza and his adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's novel, War Horse (Tony Award, Best Play 2011). His plays for radio include A Matter of Sex (winner of Sony Gold Award Best Original Script), Ring of Roses, La Petite Mort, The List, A Year and a Day, The Fire Inside, Birdsong,, A Thousand Acres and Frankenstein. His TV films include The Missing Finger. His screenplays include The Blue Suit, Pity (winner of Dennis Potter Play of the Year Award 1998) and Katherine Desouza. His first novel, Armistice, was published in 2010. Michael Morpurgo is the author of more than a hundred titles. His books have been translated into over twenty- five languages, and many have been made into films and plays. In 1976 he and his wife Clare set up the charity Farms for City Children, and in the last thirty years over sixty thousand children have come to stay and work on one of the farms run by the charity. From 2003 to 2005 Michael became the third Children's Laureate and travelled all over the world telling stories to anyone who would listen. Since then he has continued to write and published ten new titles, among them Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea, The Amazing Adventures of Adolpus Tips, Beowulf, Born to Run, The Mozart Question and Singing for Mrs Pettigrew. War Horse has been adapted for stage and screen.