War Horse

'War Horse' isn't perfect. Let's just get that out of the way. The hype - it's been a massive critical and popular hit - doesn't help it. It's a lovely piece of family theatre, based on Michael Morpurgo's novel about a horse separated from his young Devonshire master and spirited off to World War I. Bereft Albert duly signs up, to seek Joey in the mud and carnage of Flanders. But it's harder on stage than in a children's novel to relate to our doting hero who, after years spent watching his friends blown to smithereens, still prioritises his beloved nag.

Mind you, I admire Kit Harington's introverted performance in the leading role: it's unusual to have a hero so withheld and unshowy. All the attention here, of course, is hogged by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler's puppet horses. Each visibly manipulated by three actors, these plywood and leather frames become astonishingly expressive beasts, notably in one wholly equine sequence, in which Joey and his new cavalry colleague Topthorn meet and size each other up.

The show, by Tom Morris and Marianne Elliott, is practically a love letter to these objects - the display of technique sometimes takes precedence over the story. The lifelike horses also incline proceedings towards literalism, which reaches its peak when a tank lumbers on stage halfway through the war. But the story's wide sweep (which steeplechases over a few credibility gaps) is effectively evoked by Rae Smith's sketched backdrops, displayed on a white strip torn across the upstage wall. And there's warmly resonant song and accordion work from composer Adrian Sutton. All in all, this is thoroughbred theatre.