"I think theatre companies tend to adapt writers who children like, or who are done in schools. He is, however, wary of the possible reason behind this sudden interest in his work. The way in which an evening he regarded as doomed was subsequently trimmed and perfected (by co-directors Marianne Elliot and Tom Morris) is one of the aspects of theatre that intrigues and mystifies Morpurgo. On the first preview, it was very clear that all the elements were there but the whole thing didn't hang together. But, actually, they jolly nearly did cock it up. "Philip said, 'These people know what they're doing and you should trust them.' And I'm glad I did. How could this be anything but ridiculous?" A gentle and polite man, Morpurgo did not want to disappoint the theatre, so he consulted his friend and fellow children's author, Philip Pullman: the National had already successfully adapted Pullman's His Dark Materials. "All that came into my head was pantomime horses. Morpurgo was initially reluctant to allow the adaptation to go ahead, worried by what has become the production's biggest-selling point: its use of puppeteers and mime artists to portray the horses in his story about first world war cavalry. The acting opportunity almost didn't happen.
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