Journeys end

[john w.]

Andy

May be late now... but the Dress circle was great... super view... but as was said stalls seem fine... I only saw it from the dress circle.

John

[Andy Shaw]

Thanks for all the advice,

Just booked two tickets in the stalls, row G, 8th April. Anyone else going on this date?

Thanks

Andy

[aliecoco]

Hi,

I went to see this play yesterday afternoon and thought it was excellent. As has been mentioned, David Haig is superb, but all the actors were fantastic. (How do they remember so many lines?)

It had me laughing and then crying at the end. A must see!

Alie.

[Annette Burgoyne]

Just wondering if anyone knows if the play will ever come to somewhere like Birmingham. It sounds a great play.

Annette

[Annette Burgoyne]

Just had a little idea, could we run a trip from the Midlands down to watch the play. Is anyone good at organising such things, do not ask me I could not organise as piss up in a brewery. Plus if anyone did take this on can I be picked up in Ludlow, may be a bus could run from Shrewsbury down to me in Ludlow, then to Brum picking any others up on route. Ok if pushed I could get to Brum. There must be at least 20 or so of us from the Midlands, we could get the discount for group bookings. Now big is the Indian over the road, WHAT a great night out.

WHAT DO YOU THINK

Annette

[ianw]

Nice idea Annette. I am planning to go (living near London) and am thinking about a Thursday matinee to bring the cost down but would be happy to join a group (even one from Brum!) for an evening performance - as long as I could meet at the theatre rather than have to go up to New St first !

I suppose there may well be others interested in the South East - but coordinating a date would be difficult , I think !

[aliecoco]

Annette/Ian,

If you can, just go for it whilst its on! I ended up going on my own, boyfriend in Spain playing golf for a week (he normally gets 'told' that he is going to the Somme, Ypres, Cenotaph etc etc), parents in Aussie for three weeks, one of my best mates skiiing in France. The rest of my family and friends wouldn't be so keen. So I shopped in Regent Street in the morning, and then watched the matinee performance in the afternoon. A few glasses of wine, here and there. Excellent day out!!

Alie.

[TimCatherall]

I saw it this weekend and just wanted to add my voice to the general praise. An excellent production, great set and (from my basic knowledge) very authentic uniforms but then Taff Gillingham is costume advisor. Superb acting especially David Haig and Paul Bradley (Nigel from East enders!). My wife who has little knowledge of the war and although feints interest isn't too bothered though it superb and was in tears at the end along with a lot of the audience. I of course maintained a stiff upper lip! I have also spoken to two friends who are theatre reviewers by profession and they both had nothing but praise for it. One said it was one of the best plays he had seen! Go and see it!

[ianw]

Thanks to Alie and Tim for the further recommendations. Thursday matinee it is then ! Looking forward to it.

[MartinWills]

The play was originally planned to close last weekend, apparently, but has (so far) been extended until 1st May. With all these pals going perhaps it will rival the Mousetrap?

[john w.]

Having brought it to the PALS attention I feel happy that everyone who has been has enjoyed it.. and I for one am certainly glad the run has been extended. As it is thoroughly well deserved...

It is a pity we cant get these comments over to the theatre to let them know how it has been received by the best Great War Forum on the web

John

[Mark Hone]

I went to the opening night of the touring production at the Lowry in Salford with some of my 6th Formers. The boys enjoyed it despite problems with the Metrolink which meant that several of them had had to do a cross-country run to get to the theatre in time. I thought that the cast did a very good job avoiding most of the problems associated with quaint-sounding period dialogue, histrionics and a situation which has been rendered a cliche by pastiche and parody such as 'Blackadder'. Philip Franks was particularly good as 'Uncle'. The artillery barrage at the end was amazingly effective. As I pointed out to a colleague at the end, most people have no idea just how loud exploding munitions are. This gave some, vague impression of the volume.

[Greenwoodman]

Thanks for that Mark. Off to see it Thursday - break from pounding the keyboard

[Mark]

Thanks, Mark. I have tickets for Brighton in 4 weeks time. Looking forward to it.

[iain mchenry]

I'm not really a "Theater" person, but after reading the various threads on the forum about this play and peoples responses I am going to see it when it comes to Malvern Theatre on 15th Nov.

Iain

[Dragon]

I went to see Journey’s End (Lowry Theatre, Salford) last night. Trust me to have booked the evening that Wayne Rooney was making his debut against Fenerbahce. (For people who are unaware, the Lowry, and the IWMN, is virtually next door to the theatre of dreams known as Old Trafford football ground, home to Manchester United.)

If you’ve booked tickets, I seriously advise you to take advantage of the offers to move you to alternative seats. The sightlines in anything which isn’t face on to the stage are atrocious. Basically, you’re looking at a trench with the fourth wall removed. The dug-out set is built behind a dark proscenium and anything which isn’t in the dug-out is masked, so unless you’re face on, you miss extreme stage left or right action. It’s adequate most of the time, because much of the action involves sitting or standing round a table, but certain movements for realism, such as carefully hanging one’s coat and pack on the wall away from the water or mud on the ground, or a character sitting on a bench trembling, would have been obscured for some.

I enjoyed the production, though I seriously feel that the time has come for a major rewrite of the play. Combining archaic language (topping, sir! awfully nice! rugger, sir?) and dated slang, with a lead (Stanhope) who SHOUTED most of the time and a couple of Cockney working class characters and you can easily be transported to John Cleese demonstrating how to disarm an enemy threatening you with a banana. I half expected someone to step forward and ask how to defend himself against a man with a point-ed stick. I have read the script, ages ago, but I can’t remember whether the cook is actually Cockney or not. If not, then it’s an unfortunate choice of characterisation because it immediately shouts Baldrick, especially in his humorous observations. In fact, at one or two poignant moments (eg Hibbert’s panic attack) the audience tittered; somehow they hadn’t engaged with the man and his terror. I think this was partly because of the size of the theatre and its lack of intimacy; movements such as tremor in hands were simply lost, so the audience’s power of imagination was restricted.

Leaving aside the merits of the script, I kept feeling that the production had been designed for a smaller theatre than the Lowry. Because of the deliberately low illumination, which seemed to have been designed to make it apparently reliant on candles and lamps, faces were not clear and it wasn’t until some of the cast came into the bar afterwards that I realised that most of them were young. I’d had to rely on being told in the script that they are recently out of school. Similarly, floor effects weren’t visible: whether there was anything on the floor. (I had heard that there was latex, sand and water to slow down the way the actors walked, as if in mud.) Occasionally the wet uniforms showed. It’s an effective design which communicates the fragility of the dug-out construction, given that you can’t expect actors to perform in a tunnelled hole four feet high. I am just regretful that they didn’t exploit the potential of this modern theatre to allow the audience to see more.

The production stressed the humanity of the men involved, their mutual respect (underlined by the relationship between the aspiring Trotter and the traditional officer class), their capacity for care, love and sensitivity (particularly in the wise, reflective Osborne), the private wreckage of the much-admired Stanhope and the absolute waste of the two actions (the raid and the final chaos); and it brought out some of the poignancy in Sherriff’s script (the triviality of a dinner party to discuss tactics compared with the huge awfulness of what could happen to Osborne and his wife who could be left alone at home with the rockery he’d made as his memorial).

The ending is a very effective dramatic device. Very, very powerful. If you’re near enough to the backcloth, look in the East Surrey Division.

Gwyn

[Mark Hone]

I agree with Dragon. Try to see it in a small venue if possible. One of my pupils was only commenting this morning that although we were only about 10 rows back in the stalls the stage seemed a long way away. I don't think that the Lowry had grasped the problems caused by the size of the set in advance and there was much chaos and confusion (a la World War One) as people were shunted round the auditorium on Monday night.

Incidentally can anyone confirm if the back cloth at the end is a picture of an actual section of a CWGC memorial? I guessed Menin Gate on the night.

[Dragon]

Incidentally can anyone confirm if the back cloth at the end is a picture of an actual section of a CWGC memorial?  I guessed Menin Gate on the night.

I believe the backcloth is fictitious. I understand that it was inspired by the designer and director's research field-visit to the Menin Gate.

Yes - they still hadn't sorted the seating and visibility on Tuesday evening and the play started 15 minutes late. If you're going, listen to the tannoy announcements about rearranged seating.

Gwyn

[Guest DNH]

I saw the play at the Lowry last night, and share the concerns about being too far away. However, that's probably my own fault for being stingy and buying seats in the upper circle! Given the atmospheric low lighting, certain qualities of facial expression were lost, especially for me the moment when Osborne is told he is going on the raid.

Hibbert was more sniggered at than sympathised with during his panic attack and attempt to see the MO, and some of the movements in that important scene did come across as rather more balletic than a clash of men's wills.

I agree it is an unfortunate choice for Trotter and Mason to become Londoners (especially Trotter given his namesakes in Peckham!). THe play has become extremely well known through parody and pastiche, and to sink into that genre further by playing the drily humourous charcters with cockney accents does drop you further into the pastiche. How many WW2 films for example feature a stern faced scotsman called jock, a singing welshman called taffy and a humourous cockney joker.

However the script is still vibrant, and I still enjoy the different characters' take on duty, loyalty and selfpreservation. I particularly like the contrast drawn between Osborne's older, mature, eloquent expressions compared to the raw and on occasions virtually inarticulate rantings of the younger men. Good stuff, and hopefully makes you think.

Cheers

[Greenwoodman]

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Gwyn, I would argue against a rewrite - the script places the play firmly within its time, which to me is an important part of its context (but thats just a punters point of view - and a WWI anorak to boot). For me historical drama loses any pretensions to realism if 21st century expressions are used. Even with its anachronisms, the theatre-full of young people there last night seemed to be enthalled. I'd met a former colleague before the performance who had been to the matinee, and said that it had been spoiled by the number of kids watching, who had not seemed to have been briefed by their accompnaying adults as to what to expect. Evening was quite different - noisy before and in the interval (not a complaint, an observation) perfectly quietly during the performance, thoroughly enthusiastic in their applause afterwards. A good evening.

[Gary Samson]

I've just seen this production on its last night at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. A superb play, well worth seeing. It continues its national tour at The Hexagon, Reading on 7 March. The remaining tour dates and venues are listed on the Journey's End website:

See Journey's End

If the set at other theatres is similar to the one created at Canterbury I'd recommend seats near the front of the stage, it might be a little more expensive but you will feel more involved than if you're further back in the auditorium.

Gary

[dah]

Saw this on Saturday night (12th March) in Reading.

It was excellent.

Thoroughly recommend this to all Forum members.

Even my wife liked it – and, considering her usual attitude to anything vaguely related to WW1, that is saying something. Beforehand, she was questioning why I even wanted her to go along…. wouldn’t I rather see it on my own or with someone else who might be remotely interested in the subject. In the end, she was glad she came. (Not sure that means I’ll be allowed more time ‘over there’ – but who knows)

The subject matter and the human dimension portrayed will be familiar ground to most Forum members – but you’ll still appreciate the experience. The characters and the acting are superb. The end is particularly moving – and the sound effects, conveying something of the experience of being at the receiving end of a barrage, were stunning.

I’d strongly recommend catching this play in your area as it continues to tour the country. You can see it in:

Guildford

Norwich

York

Southend

Eastbourne

Glasgow

Cheltenham

Sheffield

Birmingham

Bromley

Further details (dates, booking etc) at http://www.seejourneysend.com/

Please note: I have no financial interest in this play. I’m fairly sure that most Pals will find it money well spent – and, if necessary, also an excellent way to get the message across to the (as yet) ‘unconverted’.

I applaud those who were moved to tears at the end. Personally, I felt like cheering (as well)!

David

PS. I endorse Gary's comment about sitting near the front. We were in the 2nd row and spellbound !

[Garde Grenadier]

Journey's End - wasn't there a black-and-white film (pre-WWII) about life at the Western Front?

Does anybody have an idea how to obtain that on DVD?

It certainly is not to be found here in Germany.

Thanks

Daniel

[ackimzey]

Our theater here (Houston, Texas) has mounted this play. I've read good reviews in the paper and the Sunday matinee ticket's are really reasonable ($15). I was just curious if any forum member's have seen it and what your opinions might be. I know production quality varies greatly but I welcome any replies.

Ann

[Kate Wills]

Ann,

Sheriff's play has had quite a few mentions on the Forum. A search gave over two pages of results. Here are quick links to a couple:

 

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I went to see the production that has now closed in London, but which opens on Broadway soon. You are going to a different production (at least I assume you can be persuaded to go!) and although I have no means of commenting on the Alley Theater's production, don't miss the chance to see a great piece of literature that emerged from the war. Here is a link to the towering London production which has impressed many members of this Forum. Charles Spencer's review says everything I would like to express.

http://www.seejourneysend.com/gallery.htm

Daily Telegraph review by Charles Spencer - 28 September 2005

THE revival of RC Sherriff’s great play about life in the trenches during the First World War has been one of the most gratifying theatrical success stories of recent years.

When David Grindley’s superb production opened at the Comedy Theatre in January last year, 75 years after its West End premiere, it was originally scheduled for a six-week run. In fact, it proved an enduring hit, transferring first to the Playhouse, then to the Duke of York’s, as well as going on two national tours. Now recast, yet again, Journey’s End is back for a further season, and there isn’t a more powerful or moving play in London.

This is a work that leaves you both shaken and stirred, offering a harrowing evocation of the horror and the appaling waste of young life in the trenches, and the celebration of the resilience and understated decency of the human spirit under unimaginable pressure.

The play is based on Sherriff’s own experience as a captain in the East Surrey Regiment, and is set in a dugout near St Quentin over four days in March 1918, just before the last great German offensive.

And though there may have been subtler, angrier and more poetic evocations of the Great War - the carnage is described, with devastating understatement, as “rather silly” - I can think of a few with quite the dramatic punch, or the smack of lived experience, of Journey’s End.

Sherriff is superb at catching the tedium of war as well as its terrors, the silences that are in their way just as frightening as the pounding of the big guns and the shocks of mortar fire. And he draws his characters – for the most part, young officers heroically struggling to maintain the stiff-upper-lip, public school ethos on the front line – with vigour, detail and compassion.

The first half is largely a waiting game, full of tension, bad jokes and strained conversation, but we come to know the characters intimately. The result is that, after the interval, when all hell breaks loose, we really care about the characters’ fate.

The latest company, directed by Tim Roseman, certainly doesn’t resemble a theatrical Third XI. In the key role of the 21-year-old Captain Stanhope, functioning only on whisky and willpower after three nerve-shredding years in the trenches, Ben Righton movingly captures an instinctive leader who is revered by his men but corroded from within by trauma and self-loathing. And though Michael Siberry can’t quite erase memories of David Haig’s beautiful, almost saintly performance as the kind, wise Lieutenant Osborne, a middle-aged former schoolmaster affectionately known as “uncle” by his young comrades, his gruff decency proves deeply affecting.

There is fine work too from Tom Payne as the raw new 2nd Lieutenant, who hero-worshipped Stanhope at boarding school. The scene in which he and Osborne make small talk in the tense minutes before an almost certainly suicidal raiding party is a masterpiece of apparently banal dialogue freighted with an extraordinary depth of emotion, and it is played with exemplary sensitivity by both actors.

Jonathan Fensom’s meticulously naturalistic dugout setting, and Gregory Clarke’s thrilling sound design, in which explosions seem to make the theatre physically shake, both deserve special commendation, while Grindley’s inspired final tableau arouses emotions that go too deep for words.

What a shock it is to leave the theatre, blinking back tears at the courage and futility of it all, to encounter today’s doomed youth, who 90 years ago would have been in the trenches themselves, shouting obscenities, chasing skirt, and getting mindlessly wrecked on cheap booze. Dulce et decorum it ain’t.