The Play War Horse is adapted from Michael Morpurgo's novel of the same name that was written for children in 1982, which won the silver prize of Whitbread Book Awards. It tells a story set in World War I. A teenage boy named Albert Narracott from Devon, England, witnesses the birth of a foal Joey and subsequently watches the growth of the young horse with admiration. After the broken of WWI, Albert Narracott’s father Ted is compelled to sell the horse to the army. Then Joey is trained for military operations witnessing the horror of the battles. Albert tries to enlist in the army to find Joey but he is too young. Luckily, an orphaned French girl named Emilie with her grandfather takes care of Joey. Later, Emilie died and her grandfather returns Joey to his master Albert. 

The National Theatre produced War Horse in 2007 and won many prizes including Tony Awards, Laurence Olivier Awards, etc. Since the premiere in October, 2007,War Horse has more than 4000 performances in the world, attracting over six million people. After War Horse being translated into English, German and Dutch, National Theatre of China started to produce the Chinese version of War Horse. The life-like war horse Joey controlled by three actors is the highlight in the drama. In order to present the horse’s soul on the stage, those actors have done a lot of training and even live with horses to imitate their behaviors and movements.