When people play War Horse It takes three actors to manipulate the life-size horse in the play War Horse. (Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily)
A couple of months later the National Theater of China began to scour China－the first time it has cast its net nationwide for audition candidates－looking for puppeteers for the piece. Of the 1,000 who auditioned, only about 50 came up to muster.
In April last year, Luther came to Beijing to choose the 19 finalists according to the rules he had set, then returned a couple of months ago to work with them for the premiere next month.
During a break in rehearsals recently, he told China Daily: "The first time you touch the puppet, the first time you try to manipulate the puppet, it's extremely difficult and it always looks a little ... strange. So it's very important to have focus, attention to detail, and to listen to each other and have no ego.
"It's an extraordinary experience in working with the actors. I was born in Portugal and trained in London, so I have a European mentality. For me, it's fresh and exciting to work with the Chinese actors including dancers, acrobats, Peking Opera performers, and they are from different regions of China.
"Every day is a fun day. We play games three or four times a day. During the games you can see the true spirit, the true personalities come out."
Liu Xiaoyi, who manipulates Joey's head and trains the Chinese puppeteers when Luther is not in China, says that when you work with puppeteers "the first thing to teach them is to make the puppet breathe".
"We work out the actual walk of the horse," says Liu, who is a dancer and choreographer and is the play's puppetry director.
"There is a certain rhythm, a certain point where a part of the horse has to pick up a step, otherwise it doesn't look right. So we slowly find every tiny movement, such as when a horse is frightened or worried."
Language barriers have been another challenge. Alex Sims, the director, says the script presents certain linguistic problems.
"The shape of the story is the same, but we have to work on the translation, the script and the songs, to make it resonate with Chinese audiences. We are lucky to have wonderful translators who retain the show's funny and touching points in a way that Chinese people can understand.
"The great thing about the horse is that it is unpredictable and spontaneous, so each performance will be entirely different. We have the idea of the shape of the show but don't simply come here to make a copy. We work with fresh actors and create a new show with them.
"Chinese actors bring their own ideas, so it will be entirely original and unique because of the personalities."
The horse puppet is unique and the emotional experience of the play is unique, Sims says, and he wants Chinese audiences to be able to connect with the play emotionally.
Zhou Yuyuan, president of the National Theater of China, says: "With War Horse we are not simply co-producing a play. The National Theater of Britain has taught us a great deal about staging techniques, theater management and actor training."
The play will be staged in Shanghai from Nov 15 to Jan 17 and in Guangzhou from March 8 to May 3.
