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Michael Morpurgo believes the reason he wrote "War Horse" has more to do with the happenstances of his birth than anything else.
The author was born in 1943 and grew up playing in a bombed-out London in the aftermath of World War II. "More importantly," he says, "was the fact that the grown-ups who were around me as I grew up had all been traumatized by this six-year war."
Like most families at the time in England, his had been touched by the conflict. He had lost an uncle who had been in the Royal Air Force, and every year his family would put poppies around his portrait on Remembrance Day (our Veterans Day). Another uncle had been a pacifist, but had eventually joined up, engendering a debate within his "Christian socialist family."
But it was a chance conversation in a pub around 1980 with a World War I veteran that led Morpurgo to write "War Horse," the story of a half-thoroughbred named Joey who is sold into a World War I cavalry regiment. The 1982 children's book was not an overnight success, but it never went out of print. Then in 2007 it was transformed into an award-winning play, and last year into an Oscar-nominated film by Steven Spielberg.
The play uses puppetry by Handspring Puppet Company based in Cape Town, South Africa, to help tell its story. The production originated at the National Theatre in London before opening on Broadway last year, winning five Tony Awards, including Best Play.
"War Horse" is now in previews at the Ahmanson Theatre before its opening night June 29.
"I was there with the horses," the old soldier had told Morpurgo.
"Here is this old man who had gone off to war as a 17-year-old," says the author. "He told me about his horse and the friendship he had with this animal and how much they would rely upon each other for support and affection. And how this friend, as he called the horse, was the only one he could talk to about his deepest feelings and fears and longings because he couldn't talk about those things with his pals because they were going through the same wretchedness."
When he first wrote the book, Morpurgo, a former Children's Laureate of England, didn't think there would be much interest, and he says sales initially bore that out. But the story of love and loyalty between a farm boy and his brave and beautiful horse amid the horrors of war continued to resonate with people.
"I think it's because the horse represents that completely innocent victim," he says.
But even Morpurgo thought the people at the National Theatre in London were a little "mad" when they approached him about turning "War Horse" into a stage production in 2005, especially when they told him they wanted to use puppets.
"I thought that this is a story about war and the horrors of it, and how can you possibly do that?" he says.
Then they showed him the work of South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company.
"They didn't have a horse, but they had a giraffe, and the two or three men working in the workshop didn't try to hide the fact that they were operating it," remembers Morpurgo. "But then the most extraordinary thing happened. This giant puppet came to life. It became a living giraffe, and I think I knew at that moment that they were capable of making horses."
It took some two years for the National Theatre, under its artistic director Nicholas Hytner, to get the production to the stage.
Morpurgo had a few of his novels adapted for the stage before, but had come away mostly disappointed. So he was a bit apprehensive when he saw an early preview.
"Yes, the puppetry was exquisite and breathtaking and the music moved you to tears and the scenery was extraordinary. The lighting was brilliant," he says. "But it didn't fit together. That's because it was maybe three or four weeks short of time even after two years."
Morpurgo left depressed, thinking perhaps the play would run for a few weeks and that would be it. Nevertheless, the cast and crew worked "day and night" over the next few weeks, and by the time the author saw it again people were on their feet cheering.
"This is the first time for me when hope and expectations came together," says Morpurgo.
And reviews were positive, both in London and later in New York. When it came to America, Entertainment Weekly called it an "imaginative, moving new Broadway drama" and The New York Times said, "It is how Joey is summoned into being, along with an assortment of other animals, that gives this production its ineffably theatrical magic."
But before it even opened on Broadway, a film was in the works.
Producer Kathleen Kennedy ("E.T.," "The Sixth Sense") was on vacation when she took her daughters to the play in London. Seeing how emotionally involved the audience was, she realized that "War Horse" might make a film. She took the idea back to Spielberg, who was working on "The Adventures of Tintin" at the time. Having done "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers," he wasn't at first interested in revisiting anything to do with war but soon changed his mind when hearing the story. Six months after deciding to do the film, Spielberg was in preproduction on it.
Morpurgo was still a bit baffled by all the interest in a nearly 30-year-old novel, but says he found a kindred spirit in Spielberg.
"At heart he is, like me, a very emotional storyteller," says the author, who along with his wife established the charity Farms for City Children, with the aim of providing children from inner-city areas an experience of the countryside.
So while "War Horse," by Morpurgo's own admission, is now recognized "because of the iconic play and an extraordinary film," he also thinks it's the subject matter that has kept "War Horse" alive.
"I think the reason it resonates now with people is because we are at war again," says the author. "Every time a coffin comes back -- whether it's to the United States or England or France -- we know that there is a mother and a father and children involved. World War I seems to represent war at its very worst and most pointless. And I think that's why the story still resonates today. It's an anthem for peace."
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WAR HORSE
When: Previews 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday through June 28 (no performance next Wednesday); opens at 8 p.m. June 29 and continues at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday through July 29 (no performance July 4), with additional shows at 2 p.m. July 5, 19 and 26.
Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.
Tickets: $20-$95.
Information: 213-972-4400, 213-628-2772 or centertheatregroup.org.
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© 2012 Daily News (Los Angeles)
Distributed by MCT Information Services
