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i would just like to know what happens afterwards. does Stanhope quit drinking and go home? do they all just die? maybe i'm just sensitive today, cause i'm not an easy crier. or maybe this play is just like that. i don't know. 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. The play is the basis for the film Aces High (1976), although the action was switched from the infantry to the Royal Flying Corps.
The resulting play ran for 594 performances in the West End, 485 on Broadway and was a worldwide hit, including in Berlin. Sherriff had apparently found the “perfect pitch” at which to represent the “tragedy” of 1914–18 for 1920s audiences who were more used to drawing-room comedies than plays set in a grimy dugout. The three-act play has themes of courage, innocence, human vanity, and mortality. The captain of this company and the protagonist of the play is named Dennis Stanhope. Purkis, Charlotte (2016). "The mediation of constructions of pacifism in Journey's End and The Searcher, two contrasting dramatic memorials from the late 1920s". Journalism Studies. 17 (4): 502–16. doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2015.1135753. Journey's End @ the Greenwich Theatre - A Review - Londoneer". Archived from the original on 19 February 2013 . Retrieved 19 February 2013. But it’s doubtful whether Sherriff aimed to create a fully fledged pacifist drama. He originally planned to write a novel focusing on the relationship between Stanhope and a new young recruit, James Raleigh (played by Asa Butterfield) – a school friend who loves him. It’s an intense relationship which made it onto the stage and is symptomatic of how, throughout the play, it’s the interactions between the soldiers that primarily interest Sherriff.
In the British trenches facing Saint-Quentin, Captain Hardy converses with Lieutenant Osborne, an older man and public school master, who has come to relieve him. Hardy jokes about the behaviour of Captain Stanhope, who has turned to alcohol to cope with the stress that the war has caused him. While Hardy jokes, Osborne defends Stanhope and describes him as "the best company commander we've got". a b c d e f g h i Sherriff, Robert Cedric (1968). No Leading Lady: An Autobiography. London: Victor Gollancz. pp.39, 9, 43–44, 45, 52, 49, 70–76, 129, 130, 181. ISBN 978-0-575-00155-8. Journey's End is a 1928 dramatic play by English playwright R. C. Sherriff, set in the trenches near Saint-Quentin, Aisne, towards the end of the First World War. The story plays out in the officers' dugout of a British Army infantry company from 18 to 21 March 1918, providing a glimpse of the officers' lives in the last few days before Operation Michael. She doesn't know that if I went up those steps into the front line – without being doped with whisky – I'd go mad with fright.” In August 2018 a production was staged to commemorate the end of the First World War at St John's School, Leatherhead, and the Leatherhead Theatre, directed by Graham Pountney. [16]
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.
A gentleman’s game?
It’s fitting that a film about the 1918 spring offensive has been released now – but it’s perhaps a comment on our times that it’s this one. Perhaps our collective view of what some persist in calling the “Great War” might better have been served by a film adaptation of The Silver Tassie or Peter Whelan’s The Accrington Pals (1981) or Frank McGuinness’s Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (1985). These were all plays created from a desire to democratise representations of the war experience. Hibbert complains to Stanhope about the neuralgia he states he has been suffering from. Stanhope replies: "it would be better to die from the pain, than from being shot for desertion". Hibbert maintains that he does have neuralgia and the right to leave the battlefield to seek treatment, but when Stanhope threatens to shoot him if he goes, Hibbert breaks down crying. He says "Go on then, shoot!", suggesting that he would rather die than stay on the battlefield. The two soldiers admit to each other that they feel exactly the same way, and are struggling to cope with the stresses that the war is putting on them. Stanhope comforts Hibbert by saying they can go on duty together. 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.
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.I loved the characters, each and every one of them feeling real to me. Complex Stanhope with his inner conflicts and extremely human fears, the dark humorous banter between Osborne and Mason, Hibbert and his terror, the ever changing relationship between Stanhope and the young Raleigh, the enthusiastic, optimistic officer who becomes more and more disillusioned when he begins the truth and sees what happens to men who are fighting. Olivier played the part again in 1934 at a special performance for a post-war charity, with Horne and Zucco from the original cast. See "Special Performance of 'Journey's End'", The Times, 3 November 1934, p. 10 Gore-Langton, Robert (2013). Journey's End: the classic war play explored. London: Oberon. ISBN 9781849433952. The seemingly mundane conversations between the officers worked perfectly to convey the monotony on the front. There’s one scene where several characters are waiting until they must go over the dugout and into no man’s land, and each minute is excruciatingly counted down. They try to fill the space with small talk, but they can’t; they’re about to go on a suicide mission. It’s one of the tensest scenes I’ve read.
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