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Journey's End is the seventh and most famous play by R. C. Sherriff. First performed in 1928, it is set in the trenches at Saint-Quentin, France, in 1918, and gives a brief glimpse into the experiences of the officers of a British Army infantry company in World War I.
Sherriff considered calling it "Suspense" and "Waiting", but eventually found a title in the closing line of a chapter of an unmentioned book: "It was late in the evening when we came at last to our Journey's End."
It is usually thought to be a very academic play, due to its many alternate themes and characters. The play is often studied by students looking for a classical example of plays based on war, especially in England, where it is often studied for English Literature GCSEs.
Plot
After having spent nearly three years in the trenches without any significant leave, 21-year-old Captain Dennis Stanhope, a young company commander straight out of school, has taken to drinking heavily to control his nerves and to ease the stress of trench warfare. He is respected by his men and comforted by his middle-aged second-in-command and closest companion, the tenderly nicknamed Lieutenant 'Uncle' Osborne. When Second Lieutenant Jimmy Raleigh, an eighteen-year-old schoolmate of Stanhope's (and brother of the girl Stanhope is said to court when at home, whom he has not seen for some time), joins the company, Stanhope believes he will see him as nothing but an unreliable alcoholic and conflicts with Raleigh follow.
A couple of days after Raleigh joins the company, he and Osborne are detailed to take part in a raid on a German trench, during which Osborne is killed by a hand grenade. Stanhope is devastated and takes it out on Raleigh, who cannot understand the false bravado the other, more experienced, officers adopt to avoid thinking about their dead friend.
As the big German attack, Operation Michael, begins, Raleigh is hit in the back by shrapnel. He dies quietly in Stanhope's arms and Stanhope is left to face the rest of the war on his own.
The other major characters include Second Lieutenant Trotter, a fat and endlessly cheerful officer commissioned from the ranks, Second Lieutenant Hibbert, a coward who fakes neuralgia in a desperate attempt to get sent home, and Private Mason, the dour officers' cook. The entire action takes place in the officers' dugout over the space of four days, 18 March 1918 to 21 March 1918.
Themes
- Death - The deaths of two of the most important characters in the play are extremely important, as are their effects on Stanhope.
- The futility of war - The fact that war is futile is pointed to by Sherriff in many of the play's scenes. For example Osborne describes to Raleigh how some German soldiers assisted their troops in retrieving a wounded soldier, yet "blows (them) to bits the day after".
- The pointlessness of war - The thought that war is pointless is portrayed in the terrible effect of the war on the officers; this was intended to portray Sherriff's views that war is the last option.
- Love and friendship - The love between the two friends (Osborne and Stanhope), the hero worship of Stanhope by Raleigh, and the fatherly attitude of Osborne, known as 'Uncle', are all important themes within the play.
Dramatis personae
- Capt. Hardy, leaving the trench
- Capt. Denis Stanhope
- Lt Osborne
- 2nd Lt Jimmy Raleigh
- 2nd Lt Trotter, portly
- 2nd Lt Hibbert, neuralgia
- Pte Mason, the cook
- Company Sergeant Major
- Colonel
- German prisoner
- L/Cpl Broughton
Production history
Sherriff had trouble getting the play produced in the West End, writing that "Every management in London had turned the play down. They said people didn't want war plays 'How can I put on a play with no leading lady?' one [theatre manager had asked complainingly."
Geoffrey Dearmer of the Incorporated Stage Society suggested that Sherriff send the script to George Bernard Shaw, because a good word from him would convince the ISS committee to stage it. Shaw replied that, like other sketches of trench life, is was a "useful * to the romantic conception of war", and that "As a 'slice of life'—horribly abnormal life—I should say let it be performed by all means".
The play opened as a semi-staged production running for two nights at the Apollo Theatre. It starred Laurence Olivier, then only 21, offered the role of Stanhope by the then equally unknown director James Whale. The play soon transferred to the Savoy Theatre where it ran for over a year starting on January 21, 1929 with the entire cast from the Apollo reprising 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.
Whale accompanied the play's transfer to Broadway in 1930, with the dress rehearsal at the Henry Miller Theater, the first performance in USA at the Great Neck Playhouse in Great Neck, New York on the north shore of Long Island, and the Broadway première the next evening. Colin Keith-Johnston played Stanhope, and Leon Quartermaine Osborne.
By the northern hemisphere autumn of 1929 it was played by 14 companies in English and 17 in other languages; in London (where it later moved to the Prince of Wales Theatre), New York, Paris (in English), Stockholm, Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Madrid, and Budapest, and in Canada, Australia, and South Africa.
Whale directed a motion picture based on the play, starring Colin Clive, David Manners and Ian Maclaren.*
The play was produced by the BBC Television Service, live from their Alexandra Palace studios, on November 11 1937, in commemoration of Armistice Day. Condensed down into a one-hour version by producer George More O'Ferrall, some short sequences from the 1930 film Westfront 1918 by G. W. Pabst were used for scene-setting purposes. Reginald Tate starred as Stanhope, with Basil Gill as Osborne, Norman Pierce as Trotter, Wallace Douglas as Raleigh, J. Neil More as the Colonel, R. Brooks Turner as the Company Sergeant-Major, Alexander Field as Mason, Reginald Smith as Hardy and Olaf Olsen as the young German soldier. Due to the live nature of the play and the fact that the technology to record television programmes did not at the time exist, no visual record other than still photographs survives of the production.
The play has been revived in the West End three times since and has received countless school and amateur productions.
Sherriff produced a novelisation of the play in 1930.
More recently, Journey's End was the basis for the 1976 film Aces High, although the action was switched from the infantry to the Royal Flying Corps.
In 2004, the play was once again revived by David Grindley in London's West End, becoming the undoubted hit success of the year. From its initial 12-week season at the Comedy Theatre from January 2004, it transferred to the Playhouse Theatre from April to October, before transferring once again to the Duke of York's Theatre and playing into its second year, finally closing on 18 February 2005. However, at the same time, the phenomenal success of the production led to another company being formed to tour the UK venues, initially booking ten theatres across the country in Autumn of 2004. The success of this tour, led to its continuation into 2005, finally closing on the road in July 2005 after playing to over 30 venues across Britain. In September 2005, the production's popularity and public demand led to its return once again to the West End, and its fourth London home - the New Ambassadors Theatre, where it opened on 15 September. This particular production came to an end on 28 January 2006.
See also
"Journey's End"