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Brilliant but arduous journey
Do or die: The stark choice for Second Lieutenant Hibbert (Simon Harrison) from his commanding officer Captain Stanhope (Nick Hendrix - left) Journey's End Wolverhampton Grand ***** THE powerful emotions and raw nerves
exposed in every scene of R C Sherriff's Great War masterpiece leave the
audience battered and drained by the time they reach the shocking,
moving end. This is not an evening's light entertainment at
the theatre – it even keeps the annoying sweet eaters quiet - it is a
hard, emotional experience which grips from the opening lines on the
dark, grim stage. It's not fun or even what you would recognise as
entertainment but it is certainly unmissable; a play and a production
that shows what theatre is capable of creating. Much of the power of Journey's End comes from the fact that it has no agenda, no political or moral message, nothing to argue or debate, no views at all. Sherriff didn't set out to write an anti-war
drama, or a play full of stiff upper lip patriotism or, worse, flag
waving jingoism – he simply wrote about the life he had known in his 10
months in the trenches before he was shipped home wounded. Yes, the language and some of the attitudes and
values seem a little quaint and dated now - we don't say “topping” much
any more – but this was 1918 and somehow, rather than appearing old
fashioned, the dated delivery gives a very modern air of authenticity –
we feel we are really in the trenches of St Quentin in the final months
of a bloody war. The drama all unfolds in the officers dugout in a
small section of the front in the lead up to the German Spring
offensive, Operation Michael on March 21. The set is permanently dim, lit by a few oil
lamps and a candle, and immediately it feels damp and dirty. The dugout
roof is hardly higher then the men so the stage is reduced to the height
of a decent coal seam. It opens with Captain Stanhope's company arriving
to relieve an eager to get away Captain Hardy (Tim Chipping) whose
conscientiousness is is notable only by its absence.
Stanhope's second in command is Lieutenant Osborne, played with an air of resigned calm by Simon Dutton. He is ancient by front line standards, known as uncle to the other officers. He was a school teacher in another life who also played rugby for Harlequins and, although he doesn't talk about it, turned out for England as a centre. Joining the company as a replacement is
Second Lieutenant Raleigh played with naïve charm by
Bridgnorth actor Graham Butler. He was at Barford school with Stanhope
and has wangled a posting to his company. Fresh from school he has
arrived at the front line full of gung-ho, how topping enthusiasm
and hero worship– he is to last just two days. Stanhope has been at the front
for three years – an eternity in Great War terms. He is loved by his men
but his nerves are shot, his sanity is on a hair trigger and he can only
get through the waking hours in a whiskey induced haze. It is a
challenging role met superbly in full by Nick
Hendrix. Second Lieutenant Trotter,
Mike Hayley, is a sort of Norman Fletcher character, making the
best of a bad situation, nothing phases him
and he laughs in the face of adversity - admittedly though much
of the laughter is hollow. A full compliment of officers is five and
making up the numbers is Second Lieutenant Hibbert
played sympathetically by Simon Harrison. His nerves, and ability to
cope, were shredded long ago. He functions only through a mix of threats
and cajoling by Stanhope. They are served by cook
Private Mason, Tony Turner, ever fussing about and in turn explaining
and apologising about what passes for food.
Two officers and ten men
- just
pop over no man's land and pick up a Boche would you, there's a good
chap. Nigel Hasting's Colonel seems more concerned about the fish for dinner than the fate of the men he is sending on what is a likely suicide mission.
For Raleigh the raid changes
his topping posting to the grim reality of war.
One day at the front and he has gone from
eager schoolboy to man. Raleigh's great
adventure has vanished, along with more than half the raiding
party, in the empty wasteland between the front
lines. We are conditioned these days
to expect ever more expensive special effects and realism with
the likes of Saving Private Ryan a typical example but the best
special effects of all are in the mind, in the imagination. This superb 2004 production
directed by David Grindley originally to mark the 75th anniverary
of the play, shows the eloquence of silence
when we are left to fill in the gaps ourselves, it shows the power of an
empty stage when our mind is left to create
scenes for us. All the characters are flawed,
damaged in some way by the war and the life
they are being forced to lead and are all superbly portrayed. Raleigh
growing up overnight, Hibbert battling fear, Trotter joking his way
through terror and Osborne resigned to what will be, all held together
by Stanhope who holds himself together with a bottle. We slowly befriend
and understand the characters and start to
care what happens to them. There are no villains, no heroes, goodies or
baddies just ordinary blokes and by the end we feel for
each of them – and what an
end. If you ever wondered about theatre's ability to surprise and shock
here is your answer. As Stanhope leaves the dugout
to join his men on a day in which 38,000 British troops died in
the battle, the curtain slowly comes down as guns
rumble in the distance and the shellshocked audience start to applaud
only to be drowned out by a rising, deafening tide of the sounds of
battle with heavy artillery, shells,
explosions, machine guns – then silence. The Last Post sounds and the
curtain rises to reveal the cast of 13 standing at ease in battle dress
and still the curtain rises, and rises and rises revealing a
memorial wall of war dead filling the entire stage up into the flies –
all to silence with an audience unsure if it would be
disrespectful to applaud. Appreciation finally triumphs over emotion though and the cast remove helmets, the nearest we get to a bow, to acknowledge rapturous applause. For a play with no message, 83
years on it still delivers loud and clear leaving many a sniffle
and damp cheek in its wake. It is simply stunning.
Theatre at its finest. See it if you can. To
08-10-11 Roger
Clarke
***** IT may be tempting to
think you have had enough of war stories with the daily diet of conflict
around the globe on television and in newspapers, but R.C.Sherriff's
brilliant play based on fact is a must see experience. From the moment the curtain
rises to the scream of shells, explosions and the rattle of machine gun
fire, the audience are gripped by the action, set in the officers'
section of British trenches near the front line during the First World
War. There is a riveting
performance from Nick Hendrix, playing Captain Stanhope, the brave young
commanding officer of a company preparing for a daring raid across No
Man's Land to capture an enemy soldier and gather intelligence at St
Quentin in 1918, in the days leading up to the last great German
offensive. Hendrix perfectly portrays a
soldier who has spent too long at the front and, though loved by his
men, needs bottles of whiskey to help him face the grim horror of war.
And Bridgnorth-born Graham Butler is excellent as 2nd Lieutenant
Raleigh, a naive newcomer to the conflict Sherriff's story, based on his
own experience, includes humour, too, but the final scene and sound
effects delivering a crescendo of ear-splitting explosions is awesome.
When the curtain rises at the end the cast stand silently in from of a
giant board listing names of the fallen, as a lone bugler sounds the
Last Post. As they leave the stage, the applause is deafening. Directed by David Grindley,
Journey's End runs to 08.10.11 Paul
Marston
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