War Horse coming to Beijing theatres

War Horse, the hit stage production from the UK's National Theatre is set to come galloping into Beijing next year as a Chinese-language version starts development between the British company and the National Theatre of China this month.

But don't go booking tickets just yet, War Horse, which was also adapted into a feature film by Steven Spielberg in 2012, isn't set to open here until autumn 2015, after more than a year of rehearsals in Beijing. The National Theatre are already working with the Chinese cast on the puppetry techniques needed to manoeuvre the impressive life-sized horse puppets that make up the show.

Already seen by over six million theatre-goers in London, New York, across Europe and South Africa, War Horse is based on Michael Morpurgo's children's book following the tale of Joey the farm horse, who is sold to the British army during the First World War, and his childhood friend Albert's journey to bring him back. The Chinese show will be the first version of the play to come to Asia, following a wider arts and culture co-production agreement between Britain and China.

Even if you don't speak enough Chinese to follow the cast, there should be enough in the show to make it worth the price of a ticket for everyone. In their five-star review of the West End version of the show, Time Out London said:

'Skeletally modernist in form but utterly, magically alive thanks to their talented army of puppeteers, Handspring's astonishing life-size puppets, are the true stars of the production.

Without them, Morpurgo's tale of how Devon-dwelling teen Albert Narracott signed up to throw himself into the meat grinder of World War I – in order to track down his beloved horse Joey – would be a likeable, humane, slightly formulaic introduction to the catastrophe of the war. With them, it is something different entirely, a virtuoso spectacle that combines grit and charm in equal measure.'