Photo Flash: Cast of WAR HORSE Visits the Olympic Park

Joey from The National Theatre's acclaimed production of War Horse appeared on stage at the Olympic Park to salute Team GB and the world's athletes. Led by Captain Nicholls (Alex Avery), Joey reared in salute to the crowd at Park Live, which included Zara Phillips who along with her team later won silver in the equestrian events in Greenwich. Check out photos from the visit below!

War Horse premiered at The National Theatre in October 2007. Now in its fourth year in the West End, Nick Stafford’s adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s book has continued to play to sell-out houses at the New London Theatre since March 2009. The Broadway production of War Horse, which continues its run at the Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, was the winner of six Tony Awards including a Special Tony Award for Handspring Puppet Company. In February 2012 War Horse opened to great critical acclaim at The Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto. A North American tour of War Horse started in Los Angeles in June of this year and will visit 27 cities in its first year.

An Australian production of War Horse will open at the Melbourne Arts Centre State Theatre on 31 December 2012 and will go on to play seasons in Sydney and Brisbane. In March 2013 a German language production will open at the historic Theater des Westens in Berlin, and a further production will embark on a UK tour later in 2013. Staging War Horse, an exhibition which tells for the first time the full behind the scenes story of the creation of War Horse continues until 9 September 2012. The exhibition, War Horse: Fact and Fiction, continues at the National Army Museum until March 2013.

At the outbreak of World War One, Joey, young Albert’s beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. He’s soon caught up in enemy fire, and fate takes him 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.

Directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, War Horse is designed by Rae Smith, with puppet design and fabrication by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler for Handspring Puppet Company, lighting by Paule Constable, and movement and horse choreography by Toby Sedgwick; the puppetry directors are Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, with video design by Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer, songmaker John Tams, music by Adrian Sutton and sound by Christopher Shutt.

War Horse is produced in the West End by The National Theatre and National Angels.

For tickets and more information, visit www.warhorselondon.com, www.nationaltheatre.org.uk or www.seetickets.com. For more about War Horse, go to warhorseonstage.com.

Photo credit: Getty BA

Joey and the cast of War Horse at Olympic Park

Joey and the cast of War Horse at Olympic Park