On Thursday, 6th October at six o’clock, Year 8 embarked on their War Horse Theatre Trip from South Woodford Tube Station. Miss Dundon was dressed for summer and felt rather chilly...she was shivering as she gave out the tickets! The journey there was quick and I was glad; it becomes very hot on the underground.
After half an hour we arrived at Holborn. We crossed a tsunami of people; it was very hard to go against the flow of the crowd. Everyone was relieved when we quickly turned down into a quiet side street. When we arrived at the theatre, Miss Dundon gave out tickets; Maham had inadvertently ended up between two teachers, but Miss Dundon did say she could move!
The crowd had become restless after at least half an hour of anticipation. Finally the show started with a wild foal being caught and sold in an auction to a drunken man and his anxious son, Albert, for thirty-nine guineas! He’d used the mortgage money.
The son became close to the horse and the dad became involved in a bet with his brother – that the horse couldn’t be trained to pull a plough. Luckily the horse managed it, despite not being a cart horse.
As the horse grew, he became incredibly strong and reliable. One day a Sergeant, who needed to requisition cavalry horses, notices the horse and decided to offer one-hundred pounds for him. Albert’s father willingly sold the horse without the son even being given the slightest hint.
The son decided to join the army and find his horse. He became a Corporal, and was very lucky to have survived the battles he was involved in. The son had to do many horrible things to animals and people. He then found his horse after it had been rescued from the barbed wire in No Man’s Land. The two sides, the Allies and the Germans, flipped a coin to see who would keep the horse. The son was then temporarily blinded by tear gas. They are in the same area when the horse is about to be killed. However, earlier on the boy had taught the horse a whistle, their own signal. The boy whistles and the horse recognises it. The boy is only just reunited with his horse.
Overall, I thought that the theatre trip was very good. It had funny moments, sad moments, emotional moments and happy moments. All of Year 8 are very grateful to Miss Dundon for her efforts to get us to the theatre. I really hope that we do something like this again.
Michael (8SD)
