Journey's End is considered a classic of First World War literature now, but at the time, it was rejected by almost every producer in the West End (‘How can I put on a play with no leading lady? But by retracing the journey Sherriff went on before he produced his epitaph for the lost generation he provides an illuminating route into the vast subject of the Great War itself. Sherriff never takes the story out of the dugout, as somebody is always telling as to what took place in the trenches or on the battlefield.

Spine speckled, with extremities lightly bumped, offsetting and mild foxing to endpapers, internally clean.It starred Laurence Olivier, then only 21, offered the role of Stanhope by the then equally unknown director James Whale. year old, Second Lieutenant Raleigh is the new arrival in the company commanded by his former schoolboy hero, Captain Stanhope.

It was almost as much of a fluke that his modest play, which had little obvious commercial appeal and might easily have been passed over as lacking novel interest for a war-weary public, got taken up for a short set of performances at the Apollo. He’s managed to get himself posted under the command of Dennis Stanhope, who was a family friend, a few years older, and Raleigh’s hero growing up. Other plays of the period dealing with the war tended to be judged by the standard of Journey's End. Sherriff presents to the audience the cyclical nature of life during war and highlights the psychological process that soldiers experience when they feel there is little they can do to influence their lives.Unlike, say, All Quiet on the Western Front ( my reflections) or Wilfred Owen's poems, Journey’s End is about men who, despite everything, insist on fighting. Laurence Olivier starred as Stanhope in the first performance of Journey’s End in 1928; the play was an instant stage success and remains a great anti-war classic.

pretty realistic, AND im sure at least 3 characters are gay, u cannot convince me otherwise (even though it’s set in ww1🤪). There's tension here, sights and sounds of a terrible war, mixed with moments of friendship, camaraderie and the routines of normal English life. I had never heard of this classic, until I spotted it in a book sale, I enjoyed the premise, and I thought I'd give it a chance. While Hardy jokes, Osborne defends Stanhope and describes him as "the best company commander we've got".Interestingly, this was one of Laurence Oliver’s earliest works and one of the stepping stones for what would become one of the most illustrious acting careers of the 20th century. Osborne reads Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” during his rest hours for enjoyment and escapism. Though relatively limited in both length and layout, Journey's End remains a profound and thought-provoking portrayal of the psychological strain and mind-numbing monotony of the First World War. I will say, however, that the interaction among four officers and their twenty-one-year-old company commander -- set against the doom-laden background of men awaiting the start of a long-rumored German attack (recently confirmed as an incontrovertible fact) -- allows for some confrontational set pieces and some tender interludes boosted by the authenticity of the naturalistic dialogue.