6 minute read
Hope & Redemption
With the news that The National Theatre’s production of the awardwinning play, War Horse, returns to The Lowry in Salford, Natalie Anglesey reflects on the talents of its original author, Michael Morpurgo
Michael Morpurgo, OBE, FRSL, FKC, DL, is a towering figure in every sense. Not only physically – as when we first meet at London’s National Theatre, he has to bend low to hear me - but also in the literary sense as author, poet, and playwright. He’s now written over 100 books and won as many accolades.
Michael is the first to admitthat his path to becoming one of our best-loved authors wasn’t always easy although he had an inspirational beginning. “My mother used to read every night to my brother Pieter and me. She would not only read stories but the poetry of Lear, De La Mare and Kipling. I loved the music in the words. It was her love of stories and poetry and how much she meant what she was reading - that brought the books to life for me.”
However, a variety of schools in Devon, Kent, London and eventually Sandhurst, proved a very different matter for young Michael. “School days were not the happiest time for me, especially being sent away to boarding school as I missed home and my family. I think the best advice for parents whose child is unhappy is to listen closely, free of judgement, as this might help your child open up.”
MICHAEL MORPURGO; BILLY IRVING (GOOSE) & JOEY (BIRGIT & RALF BRINKHOF)
Michael’s favourite books as a child eventually inspired him to write. “Treasure Island was the first real book I read for myself and Jim Hawkins was the first character I identified with totally. I lived this book as I read it. My favourite book as an adult is The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono. I wish I’d written that.”
But the impetus which encouraged Michael to put pen to paper happened during his time as a teacher. “I used to read the children a story at the end of the day but I could see it was boring them. My wife suggested I read one of my own stories so the next day I read them one I’d written for my own children. My class seemed to love it and when the bell rang for the end of the day, they didn’t want it to stop. A great feeling - and one that made me feel I could be a writer.”
Should parents encourage their own children to write? “Each child is different but one thing parents and teachers can do is pass on a love of stories and hopefully writing will follow. When you read a story you love to a child, you hold hands through an adventure. You live the story together and imagine it together. I think the best advice you can give them is to write from the heart, without worrying too much about grammar and spelling. Try and live inside your story, hear and feel it all around you and become the characters.”
Michael’s writing success meant he could leave teaching to write full time, eventually becoming Children’s Laureate from 2003-2005. He received a CBE two years later for Services to Literature but he’s proudest of the MBE he shares with his wife Clare. “Together we founded the charity, Farms for City Children, and the honour is for that and the people who help to make it happen. The idea is that children from inner-city schools come to the farms and spend time helping to look after the animals.”
JOEY & MICHAEL MORPURGO IN IDDESLEIGH (ROSIE ANDERSON); THOMAS DENNIS (ALBERT) & JOEY (BIRGIT & RALF BRINKHOFF)
It was on their first farm that Michael found the inspiration for his most famous novel. “On one of the school trips I noticed a little boy, who didn’t speak at all, talking non-stop to one of the horses. The horse kept nodding his head as if he was listening and in a strange way it looked like boy and horse were communicating. About the same time I found some old photographs of horses co-opted into the First World War and two of the oldest people in our village told me they’d seen at first hand the carnage in war zones. I was shocked to learn that as many horses died in that war as British soldiers. Over 10 million men and horses on all sides died. I wanted to record that and in 1982 War Horse was published.”
Michael’s story centres around the relationship between young Albert and his beloved horse Joey, requisitioned by the army to fight in World War One. In the confusion of battle Joey serves on both sides ending up in No Man’s Land. In the meantime Albert, who’s too young to enlist, embarks on a dangerous mission to rescue him in a remarkable tale of loyalty, courage and friendship.
“I don’t have a particular age range in mind when I’m writing as I write for myself. Yes, there are difficult themes in my books – like war and loss. War continues to divide people, to change them forever, and I write about it because I want people to understand the absolute futility of
JASPER WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT (BILLY), TOM QUINN, DOMONIC RAMSDEN & NICKY CROSS (JOEY) (BIRGIT &RALF BRINKHOFF)
MICHAEL MORPURGO WOTH GOOSE (JEFF SPICER)
war. Wars are still happening today and children see the effects of the suffering through their various technical devices. Knowing the sensitivities of children,we have to be careful not to traumatise them, but to approach it with hope at the centre of the story.”
When the National Theatre first approached Michael about staging War Horse as a play, he had initial misgivings. “I have to confess I was sceptical and wondered how a convincing drama of the First World War could be made using life-size puppets of horses. Pantomime horses came to mind. But this was The National so maybe they knew what they were doing.”
For over a year the NT directors, Tom Morris and Marianne Elliot, workshopped the story with Handspring Puppets. Michael explains the process: “The creative team came down to Devon to see the landscape of the story, and to watch horses working the land. The play won five-star reviews and the War Horse buzz is still there.”
In 2011 the Broadway stage production received six Tony Awards and was seen by film director Steven Spielberg. Indeed several of Michael’s books have already been made into films. “I wrote the screenplay for Why the Whales Came starring Paul Schofield and Helen Mirren. However, it became a family joke that when the phone rang one of the children would say Steven Spielberg’s on the phone – and then one day it actually was!”
Spielberg’s movie premiered in 2012 starring Jeremy Irvine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston and Emily Watson and was nominated for six Academy Awards. “Steven’s a lovely man who was emotionally connected with the story. Like me he’s a story-teller who never shrinks from the horror of war. We all want young Albert and his horse Joey, to survive and find one another again. I met with Steven and his producer Kathleen Kennedy a few times and we talked about the book, Devon and the inspiration for War Horse. My wife Clare and I were asked to appear in the film and meet the cast which was quite an experience.”
Plays, based on Michael’s other books, like Running Wild, have also proved popular here but audiences regularly return to see War Horse and Michael thinks he understands the reason. “With the book, I wanted to write about hope and there’s hope in the play, too. Not only is it a powerful play about loyalty and friendship but it’s also a play that parents, grandparents and children can all enjoy at different levels. There’s hope and redemption, not because readers like happy endings, but because I’m an optimist at heart. I think people return to see it because it’s both a piece of ground-breaking theatre and a wonderful anthem for peace. If anything, I hope people take away a sense of the universal suffering on all sides and how war changes lives.” War Horse, The Lowry, 13-30 June, 2018 (thelowry.com)
