R. C. SHERRIFF’S JOURNEY’S END

                                                                  Robert Cedric Sherriff

When I started planning this blog, I quickly decided that since Journey’s End was the most well-known World War One play in the English language, I would not write a post about it. What changed that decision was the fact that I mentioned this play in my previous post, Ernst Johannsen’s Brigade Exchange. I feel it is only fair to have Journey’s End as an available post if a reader wants to have a quick source at hand.

Robert Cedric Sherriff (1896-1975) wrote Journey’s End in 1928 for his boat club’s annual fund-raising event. He was required to have an all-male cast. Sherriff drew upon his World War One experiences, while serving as a Captain in the British armed forces at the age of twenty-one, to write this play. 

Journey’s End is set in a British dugout before Saint-Quentin, a town located in northern France. Act One: Monday evening, March 18, 1918. This specific date relates the action of the play historically to the major German Spring Offensive that began on March 21, 1918.

The main room in the dugout is lighted by candles set in two bottles on the table.  The doorway frames several steps that lead up to the parapet of a trench and a narrow strip of starlit sky. On the table is a litter of papers and a bottle of whisky. Officer’s equipment hangs in a mass from a nail in the wall. This is the Officer’s area and Captain Hardy is waiting for a small new group of soldiers to arrive. After Hardy leaves, Second Lieutenant Raleigh arrives to join this unit.  Raleigh went to school with Captain Stanhope, the commander of this unit. Raleigh is excited to be assigned to Stanhope’s unit. This act sets up the possibility of an impending major enemy attack as well as demonstrating the relationships between the officers and the only lower-class soldier in their dugout, Private Mason, their cook.

Act Two. Scene 1: Early Tuesday morning. Officers Osborne and Raleigh are having breakfast as Second Lieutenant Trotter enters. It is quiet in the trench where this platoon of soldiers has spent the past six days. The British trench is a football field away from the German trench which is approximately seventy yards long. Since the English believe the Germans are planning an attack within forty-eight hours, this group of soldiers must stay on duty.

Act Two. Scene 2: Afternoon of the same day. Stanhope believes the German’s major attack will be on Thursday morning. The Colonel arrives with a special order for a small group of Stanhope’s men to raid the German trench to grab a German soldier and bring him back for interrogation.

Act Three. Scene 1: Wednesday afternoon, towards sunset.   Osborne and Raleigh are the two officers who will be directing the raid and they leave on this assignment.  They will select several soldiers in the trench to go with them. There is the sound of machine-guns and a smoke bomb explodes.  Shortly after the attack, a young German soldier is brought down into the dugout for the Colonel to interrogate. The German attack for tomorrow is confirmed. Lieutenant Osborne was killed during the raid.

Act Three. Scene 2. Late Wednesday evening.  Dinner is over.  There is a sense of jovial comradery among the officers. Raleigh returns to the dugout after everyone except Stanhope retires.  Stanhope is angry with him since he remained on duty rather than return for supper.

Act Three. Scene 3: Thursday, towards dawn. The attack is expected shortly, and the officers are awakened and quickly go into the trench.  The final moments of the play involve Raleigh, who is mortally wounded, and Stanhope. 

This plot outline describes the situation the playwright constructed. It illustrates how most of the characters mask the fact they are in constant mortal danger. The intension of this drama is to reveal to the reader/audience members the effects of war on frontline military. Previously there had not been a drama that portrayed this situation so realistically.

Following the boat club’s staging of this play, Sheriff convinced the Incorporated Stage Society of London to present two performances of his play for its thirtieth season at the Apollo Theatre. These performances were presented December 9-10, 1928. Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) played Stanhope and Maurice Evans (1907-89) played Raleigh. After positive reviews, Producer Maurice Brown (1881-1955) transferred the Stage Society’s production to London’s Savoy Theatre opening on 1/21/1929. The only actor who could not assume his same role for Brown’s production was Olivier who had to honor another commitment. Captain Stanhope was played by Colin Clive (1900-1937). This production transferred to the Prince of Wales Theatre on June 3,1929 and continue to be performed through June 7,1930. Its London run totaled an impressive 593 performances.                                                               

                                                                          Colin Clive

Shortly after Journey’s End opened in London, Maurice Brown, who had also been living part-time in America, worked with Gilbert Miller (1884-1969) to stage an American production.  Journey’s End opened on Broadway in the Henry Miller Theatre on March 22, 1929 and closed May 17,1930 after its 485th performance. Brown arranged for British actors Colin Keith Johnson (1896-1980) to play Stanhope and Derek Williams (1911-1988) as Raleigh to appear in the Broadway production.

There were two later productions of Journey’s End on Broadway. The revival opened at the Empire Theatre on September 18,1939 and closed after its sixteenth performance on September 30^th.  British actor Colin Keith Johnson starred as Stanhope and Jack Merivale (1917-1990) played Raleigh. The most recent Broadway production opened February 22, 2007 at the Belasco Theatre and played 125 performances before closing on June 10, 2007. It starred Hugh Dancy (1975-   ) as Stanhope and Stark Sands (1978-    ) as Raleigh. 

On August 1, 1939, The Stage reported that the English Players performing in Paris, France gave their one hundredth performance of Journey’s End.  This production performed in English was slated to continue its run until the end of September when this company was booked to tour in Switzerland, Germany and Holland. 

There have been three significant British revivals of the play.  To celebrate Journey’s End seventy-fifth anniversary, David Grindley (no dates available) directed this production. It opened in January, 2004 at London’s Comedy Theatre and later was transferred to the Playhouse. Paul Taylor in The Independent stated that it was a “Deeply affecting revival.”  Grindley created in July, 2011 the second professional theatre London revival. This production starred James Norton (1985-   ) as Stanhope.

The third production mounted by MESH Theatre Company opened for a limited run October 10, 2017 and it played through November 12, 2017. This production opened in Ypres, Belgium and it was to recognize the 100^th anniversary since the playwright fought and was wounded in the Third Battle of Ypres. Sally Woodcock, the director of this production and founder of MESH, returned to Flanders with her theatre company in 2018 to present Journey’s End to mark the World War One Armistice and again in November 2019 to perform in the Skindles Ballroom that during World War One had served as the British officers’ club in Poperinge, near Ypres.

There were three major films made of Journey’s End. The first one was released in April 1930.  It was “AN ALL-TALKING PRODUCTION” produced by Gainsborough Pictures and Tiffany Productions. It was filmed at the Fine Arts Studios in Los Angeles, California. The production was directed by James Whale (British,1889-1957). Colin Clive reprised his role as Stanhope and David Manners (1900-1998) played Raleigh.

The second major film was made for BBC TV in 1988. It was directed by Michael Simpson and stars Jeremy Northam (1961-   ) as Stanhope and Mark Payton (1960-    ) as Raleigh. The most recent film of Journey’s End was released 12/14/2017 and it is still available on Prime Video. It is a British production directed by Samuel Dibb (1968-    ). It stars English actors Sam Clafin (1986-   ) as Stanhope with Asa Butterfield as Raleigh (1997-    ).

This drama is a must read if you are interested in World War One.

C.K. MUNRO’S THE RUMOUR

C. K. Munro (1889-1973) had two plays Wanderers (1915) and At Mrs. Bream’s (1921) successfully staged by London’s Stage Society (1899-1939). This group produced new and experimental plays with artistic merit.  Many of the plays produced by this organization were later successful in London’s commercial West End theatres. C. K. Munro was fortunate that this group recognized the merit of his early works. 

During this period of initial recognition as a playwright, Munro kept his day job as a Civil Servant in the Ministry of Labour. He eventually rose to the position of Under-Secretary at the British Ministry of Labour and National Service. Munro was born in Ulster, Ireland and educated at Cambridge. His surname was MacMullan, but he wrote under the name of Munro which was his grandmother’s maiden name. 

World War One had interrupted Munro’s playwriting career. After its Stage Society’s debut, At Mrs. Bream’s quickly became a commercial success in London and towns throughout the country as well as in New York when staged by the Theatre Guild, 1926.  His next play The Rumour is very different in style from his earlier plays. It is a serious piece concerned with the political, social and ethical problems of the era following the war. It has one-dimensional characters who work to manipulate each other. Their endeavors illustrate that war does not breakout spontaneously, but it is contrived by individuals who have a monetary interest in the resources controlled by another nation. The play is experimental in format and was frequently dubbed expressionistic. It borrows from expressionism, but it has its own individual style.

 The Rumour was staged in December, 1922 by the Stage Society. The Times (London) reviewer stated: “it is a clever piece of satire swamped by political oratory.” Later in the review he singled out young Claude Raines (1889-1967) for kudos. 

The Rumour was considered worthy of publication in 1923 by W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. of London.  A. Knopf of New York, in 1924, published another book edition of The Rumour. It was included in another publication titled Three Plays. By C.K. Munro. Victor Gollancz, Ltd. London: 1932.

The Rumour, a satire on international politics is designated by the playwright as “A Play in Two Parts.”  However, there is also a Prologue and an Epilogue. These two framing scenes are set in the London home of a man named Luke, who has major interest in financial operations in two small European countries—Przimia and Loria.  Luke’s greed is the trigger that sets the action of the play in motion, but he only appears in these two scenes.  This is a long play with many scenes and about fifty characters.  Part I, Act I has four scenes, Part I, Act II contains four scenes. Part II, Act I has three scenes while Part II, Act II also contains three scenes. 

The plot commences when a British diplomat in Przimia spreads a rumor that the poorer neighboring country of Loria is planning to start a war with Przimia in order to recover a territory taken from it fifty years before.  Many Lorians work in Przimia since they are less expensive laborers.  The impending war rumor accelerates when the daughter of a British workman is killed accidentally by a stray bullet while she is attending a meeting in Przimia with her Lorian boyfriend. This incident is magnified in the British press and a war ensues in which both small countries lose.  The peace treaties advantage the British and French business interests.  Munro used “England” and “France” to represent any powerful modern governments—he did not intend them to be specific references.

The Rumour is a script characterized by many, long speeches and lots of characters, but it clearly delineates the insincerity of political and diplomatic discussion because the outcome is determined long before the war begins. The two powerful countries support the outcome desired by their own rich commercial financiers. Munro wanted to delineate a realistic view of the world as it emerged following World War One.

The Rumour received a second major staging opportunity by Terence Gray in 1927 at the Festival Theatre in Cambridge, England.  This theatre founded in 1926 was experimental rather than following the more conventional West End theatres. Gray produced plays to provoke unexpected and unanticipated audience reactions. He wanted the plays to portray a readjustment of the accepted values to his audiences.  This production featured a young Maurice Evans (1901-1989) as the Honorable Algernon Moodie, British Attaché in Przimiprzak.

The Rumour eventually was successfully staged at the Court Theatre, London, opening during February, 1929 and it ran for sixty-seven performances. The cast included Jessica Tandy (1909-1994) in her first West End production.  The success at the Court helped to spread interest in this play throughout the United Kingdom. Also the script was reworked and shortened by the Court Theatre Company.  Numerous local productions of The Rumour were staged throughout Great Britain during the 1930s.  It was also adapted into a one hour radio play and broadcast on the National “wave” throughout 1930 and 1931. 

Another production of The Rumour was mounted in early 1930 by the English Players headed by Edward Stirling (1891-1948). This company toured Munro’s play to Frankfurt, Germany and Vienna, Austria. 

This is an unusual play with a topic that is still relevant.  It is worth one’s time to read The Rumour.