War Horse at Broward Center for the Performing Arts

War Horse centers on the relationship between Albert, a teenager growing up on a farm in Devon, England, just before World War I, and his beloved half-thoroughbred horse, Joey. Albert's family is poor, and his father raises cash by selling Joey to the cavalry as the war begins in 1914. Too young to enlist, Albert craves news of his horse, which was shipped to the battlefield in France. Three years later, Albert runs away to join the army, determined to find Joey and bring him home. Meanwhile, this smart and brave horse is pulled into service on both sides of the conflict before being left on his own in no-man's-land, surrounded by trenches and barbed wire. The vast stage is virtually bare, but the cast of 35 (including groups of three performers who control the horse puppets' "head, heart and hind") is constantly on the move in scenes that jump from the Devon countryside to the battlefields and forests of World War I-era France.