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JEAN FRANKS, director, introduces her production
When the opportunity to direct a play at the GWT arose and the play being Journey’s End, it was just too good an offer to resist.
I have loved this play ever since I first saw it at the Mermaid Theatre, Puddle Dock, Blackfriars in the early 60s. I was totally transported into that dugout in 1918 near St. Quentin, such was the cleverness of their set. The performances were so extraordinarily powerful that it left me thinking greatly of that ‘war to end all wars' and questioning my own moral fibre should I ever have to face such horrors. Also thinking how amazing it was that an all-male cast could hold our attention in such a way without the help of extravagance, many devices or any of the theatrical means which, today, we have at our disposal. Eleven men, a dugout, gunfire and a wonderful script, that was all. The simplicity is what makes it great.
Journey’s End isn’t so much about war. It is about a friendship which suffers because of situations brought about by the war. It is also very much about vastly different personalities being thrown together because of the war and just trying to get along under exceptional circumstances. It is quite clear that many of these men would not have sought out each other’s company in any other situation. Even though many of the characters do not show it, their fear is there, the prospect of death is there and is handled in their own individual ways. And the tedium is there; the long wait for something to happen. (In fact, Sherriff originally called his play Suspense then Waiting and finally Journey’s End). However, whilst the war progresses only 60 yards away, private, domestic and trivial situations seem to become of great importance. Perhaps they felt that if they didn’t voice it, the ghastly inevitability would not happen. Talking about the lack of pepper at dinner was probably more acceptable than talking about whether they might survive until the next dinner.
We have been reminded, during our rehearsals, how very different are the times in which we live now. What a casual society we have become! Casual speech, casual clothes, casual behaviour. People are noticeably liberated. The society of 1918 was a stricter, formal, some might say mannered and certainly a class-divided society. Speech was different, body language was different; certainly manners and mores were different. InJourney’s End we see a very young but outstanding officer (Stanhope) full of shame because the horrors and pressures of war have caused him to drink excessively - just to get through it. Today we might consider that a minor issue considering the strain he is under. Here are the stinking trenches, the rats, the mud, the almighty fear and not one swear word is uttered. We feel that the script loses absolutely nothing because of that. In fact, amidst all the horror humour abounds. It is also interesting to note that when Kitchener’s call for help went out, the armed forces recruitment offices were swamped with eager young men up and down the land only too willing to lay down their lives for their country. It was the ‘decent’ thing to do.
R C Sherriff wrote this play with the first-hand knowledge of an ex-soldier having faced all the same situations. He knew how men spoke and reacted and because of the way he has written about them, we accept them as individuals not cardboard cut-outs. We get to know them as characters and we care about them. On that basis perhaps we can accept that Journey’s End is probably a true and fairly accurate account of a few days in a dugout during the First World War. Sherriff wrote about his method of writing and about war plays in general and I quote his statement here.
"The experienced West End managers...had all done their best to get war plays across to the public, and all without exception had failed. The only thing they hadn't taken account of was that Journey's End happened to be the first war play that kept its feet in the Flanders mud. All the previous plays had aimed at higher things: they carried "messages," "sermons against war," symbolic revelations. The public knew enough about war to take all that for granted. What they had never been shown before on the stage was how men really lived in the trenches, how they talked and how they behaved. Old soldiers recognized themselves, or the friends they had served with. Women recognised their sons, their brothers or their husbands, many of whom had not returned. The play made it possible for them to journey into the trenches and share the lives that their men had led. For all this I could claim no personal credit. I wrote the play in the way it came, and it just happened by chance that the way I wrote it was the way people wanted it."
Our objective has been to try and show that truth as Sherriff told it. Also it seems pertinent to revive this play this year when we have recently lost the WW1 veterans Henry Allingham and Harry Patch. They will be missed at the Cenotaph this Remembrance Day.
It is my pleasure to introduce several new faces to the Geoffrey Whitworth stage. Playing Captain Stanhope is Robert Shilton, Scott Godfrey plays 2nd Lieutenant Raleigh, 2nd Lieutenant Hibbert is played by Grant Clarke and the part of the German soldier is undertaken by Dominic Clarke. Scott, Grant and Dominic have only just left school. They are at the ages of the characters they portray. Also new to the GWT is Clive Stringer in the part of Lance-Corporal Broughton. With the talent they are all already showing I feel sure that we will be seeing these actors at the GWT for many years to come. They are joined by experienced and popular performers such as Maurice Tripp, Michael Martin, Paul Wharton, David Oatley, Peter Gray and Dave Kerry, who made his debut in The Full Monty this summer.
I have been spoiled, in this my first production at the GWT, by a first class, highly talented cast and a backstage team second to none. I would like to thank everyone for their hard work, tremendous commitment and all their help which has been so greatly appreciated. It has been an enormous pleasure to have worked with them all. For our audience, Journey’s End hopefully will prove to be a powerful, moving and thought-provoking evening of theatre with a surprising number of laughs along the way.
Please Note: There will be smoking in this production
BILL BRAY introduces the author of our November play
R.C.Sherriff was 18 when war was declared in 1914 and so it was inevitable that he would join the army in 'the war to end all wars'.
He left his job in his father's insurance business to become a captain in the East Surrey Regiment. He went back to insurance after surviving the war. He had begun to write and used his war experiences in writing Journey's End which was a great success when first staged in London in 1929 and then all over the world. A year later a film version repeated this success and the play has been revived repeatedly. The latest London revival met with considerable acclaim.
It is not merely that the play, about life in a dugout in the front line, seems constantly relevant in this war-torn world, but it is also a well written, moving account with excitement and some humour and manages some small-scale stage spectacle despite the confined space of the subterranean bolt-hole.
Sherriff continued to write plays, including Home at Seven (1950), written for Ralph Richardson, but his screenplays were also very successful, such as the Claude Rains Invisible Man (1933), the original Robert Donat, Greer Garson version of Goodbye Mr Chips (1936), the remarkable study of a wounded and dying IRA man with James Mason, Odd Man Out (1945), and the smash-hit RAF. epic The Dam Busters (1955).
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