Journey's End (Penguin Modern Classics)

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The huge success of his play, Journey’s End, published in 1929, in both Europe and America enabled Sherriff to become a full-time writer. He wrote many successful plays and screenplays. He also wrote novels. However, the English writer was best known for his play Journey's End, which was based on his experiences as an army officer in the First World War. He added: “You get pretty much mixed audiences now. Women might not buy history books about the first world war, but they would go and see that play.” The scenes between the men were extremely subtle and really drove home the complete and utter futility of it all. And I think it’s this subtlety that made the final scene all the more haunting.

The play premiered at the Apollo Theatre in London on 9th December 1928, starring a very young Laurence Olivier as Captain Stanhope. In 2017, it was adapted into a film starring Sam Claflin in the same role. Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p.264. ISBN 978-1-84854-195-5. Curtis, James (1998). James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters. Boston: Faber and Faber. p.71. ISBN 0-571-19285-8. The Fortnight in September. 1931. OCLC 246884057. (Reprinted in 2006 by Persephone Books); 2021 pbk reprint. Scribner. 7 September 2021. ISBN 978-1-9821-8478-0. To forget, you little fool—to forget! D'you understand? To Forget! You think there's no limit to what a man can bear?" Stanhope, Act III, Scene 2, p. 85A second eponymous English film adaptation was released in 2017, with a wider theatrical release in spring 2018. Sherriff, R. C. (1968). No Leading Lady: An Autobiography. London: Gollancz. pp.14, 22. ISBN 0-575-00155-0. I remember studying this play at secondary school, and it did not leave much of an impression. Simply another script to read until we could play football at break. Upon returning to it a little older, I have found a deep level of appreciation for the play. All of the action takes place in a British officers dugout during the final year of the First World War. Captain Stanhope, respected and revered by his men, manages to function by drinking copious amounts of whisky to numb the horrors of the trenches. Osbourne, his second in command, finds solace in literature and reads from "Alice in Wonderland", as both a release from reality and a way to understand the absurdity of what is happening. Into the mix comes Raleigh, a young second lieutenant, fresh from home, who pulls strings to get in Stanhope's company, because he hero-worshiped him as the rugger team captain from school days and also because Stanhope is involved with his sister. Tensions arise because of Raleigh's naivety and hero-worship, and Stanhope's fears that he is not worthy of such praise and his worry that news of his drinking and despair might reach the ears of his intended. Stanhope also worries that young Raleigh's eagerness to join him has doomed him with the rest of them.

Osborne and Raleigh discuss how slowly time passes at the front, and the fact that both of them played rugby before the war and that Osborne was a schoolmaster before he signed up to fight. While Raleigh appears interested, Osborne points out that it is of little use now. When Stanhope enters the dugout, he’s stunned to see Raleigh. Rather than embracing him, he simply asks how he got here. He then turns his attention to Osborne and Trotter, another officer, and the group sits down to eat together. Eventually, the fourth officer of Stanhope’s infantry, Hibbert, enters and claims that he doesn’t know if he can eat because of his neuralgia. This obviously annoys Stanhope, who urges Hibbert to eat, but Hibbert goes to bed. “Another little worm trying to wriggle home,” Stanhope says. Osborne puts a tired and somewhat drunk Stanhope to bed. Stanhope, as well as the other officers, refers to Osborne as "Uncle".The play has been filmed several times, and a new version has just appeared. I look forward to it, as well as hoping to see Journey’s End on stage at some point. Even crocodile smiles can be so deceiving. We had always known about its tears. By the way, Osborne is reading in candlelight as sunshine hardly comes inside the dugouts. When several candles are burning at the same time, it can make the temperature quite hot and unbearable. Then there were rats which nibbled at your shoes and worms which made you feel queasy. Here is an extract from the play which shows the Brits praising their nemesis -- the Germans -- rather than shredding them to bits. This alone shows you that Mr. Sherriff wrote the book from his heart and provides credit where it is due. Stanhope sarcastically states, "How awfully nice – if the Brigadier's pleased", when the Colonel's first concern is whether information has been gathered, not whether all the soldiers have returned safely. Six of ten other ranks have been killed. In September 2018 a production was staged by Fintry Amateur Dramatic Society (FADS), in "The Studio", a converted barn outside Killearn, Stirling. [17] Adaptations [ edit ] Film [ edit ]

In this passage, Trotter blithely recites a grim rhyme about a mother reassuring her daughter at the sight of her husband being run over by a tram. This passage is significant because it speaks to the play's thematic concern with repression, revealing how soldiers use gallows humor to remain in high spirits when faced with the grim reality of war. Osborne reads Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” during his rest hours for enjoyment and escapism. He reads loudly so that Trotter too can hear it. A radio adaptation by Peter Watts was produced for BBC Radio 4's Saturday Night Theatre in November 1970, featuring Martin Jarvis as Captain Stanhope. Even though I have read many anti-war poems dealing with the First World War, which were all written by youths like Owen and Sassoon who had experienced the war in the trenches, this is the first time that I have read a play regarding it.

Vahimagi, Tise (1994). British Television: An Illustrated Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.8. ISBN 978-0-19-818336-5. The road to Journey's End...A Hitch in the Proceedings and other early plays by R C Sherriff". Exploring Surrey's Past. 21 November 2014. Journey's End opened as a semi-staged production running for two nights at the Apollo Theatre. [1] It starred Laurence Olivier, then only 21, offered the role of Stanhope by the then equally unknown director James Whale. [1] Under a new producer, Maurice Browne, the play soon transferred to the Savoy Theatre where it ran for three weeks starting on 21 January 1929. [2] The entire cast from the Apollo reprised their roles ( George Zucco playing Osborne and Maurice Evans Raleigh) except for Olivier, who had secured another role and was replaced by Colin Clive as Stanhope. [3] The play was extremely well received: in the words of Whale's biographer James Curtis, it "managed to coalesce, at the right time and in the right manner, the impressions of a whole generation of men who were in the war and who had found it impossible, through words or deeds, to adequately express to their friends and families what the trenches had been like". [4] It transferred to the Prince of Wales Theatre, where it ran for a further two years.