I have not been lucky enough to see a live performance of War Horse, but I was always intrigued by the puppetry that I saw in video clips. Quite an accomplishment to create something that almost makes you forget that it is not alive. Horse and avian companions alike.

All the more impressive, when it’s actually the REAL THING on the stage. (And if you thought I’d manage to spend a week without mentioning birds, you are mistaken.) In my hope for the ultimate distraction from world woes, I discovered this little gem, a Parisian equestrian theatre that hired Mongolian singers and trained geese….. isn’t your day already a bit brighter seeing them all waddle behind the horse??? Tuvan throat singing included?

 

Closer to home, a Boom Arts performance that featured pigs was equally enchanting.  I’D RATHER GOYA ROBBED ME OF MY SLEEP THAN SOME OTHER SON OF A B*TCH by Rodrigo García was performed here in 2015 and was an astute political accusation of the ravages of blind capitalism. Ebbe Roe Smith nailed the role of narrator in this one man – two piglets play.

 

And here are the handlers that provide animals for performances at the Met – who’d have thought….. http://www.metopera.org/discover/video/?videoName=the-animals-of-manon-lescaut&videoId=2540402945001

Ebbe did much of his own!