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Journey's End

Writers: R. C. Sherriff

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First produced in 1928, Journey’s End offers a bleak and brutally honest insight into life in the trenches during World War One. It centers around Stanhope, the Commander of an infantry company fighting the Germans in France during 1918. Only in his early twenties, he has been ravaged and dramatically altered by the horrors of leading a company of men to their deaths in a savagely tragic war. He has turned to drinking copious amounts of whisky so that he does not “go mad with fright”. However, when Raleigh--a young, naive, and enthusiastic eighteen year old lieutenant--is recruited into his company, Stanhope’s blissful memories of his past collide with his desperate present. Raleigh hero-worships his older school friend from home and is stunned by the dramatic change in Stanhope’s character. Weaving Stanhope’s struggle for sanity with the differing experiences of several other officers in the trenches, Sherriff’s play provides a bitter commentary on the idiocy and damaging psychological effects of a war which saw very few men return from the front. Indeed, the honest account of war, themes, and relationships within the play still resonate today.

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Theater Review | 'Journey's End'

For Comrades in Arms, Waiting and Nothingness

By Ben Brantley

• Feb. 23, 2007

The minutes contract and dilate, like wary eyes in shifting light, amid the time-bending silence that pervades the splendid revival of R. C. Sherriff’s “Journey’s End,” which opened last night at the Belasco Theater. Set in the British trenches near the front line in St. Quentin, France, during World War I, David Grindley’s acutely staged and acted production of this landmark drama from 1928 is filled with instances of soldiers checking their watches, asking the time, counting off days and hours and minutes.

No clock or chart, though, can begin to measure time as these men experience it. It is the period before a battle that may or may not happen but will probably be their death if it does. They can stuff the emptiness of waiting with chatting or drinking or pipe dreaming. But whether they speed it up or slow it down, time is definitely not on their side.

Though it hasn’t been seen on Broadway in more than six decades, “Journey’s End” turns out to be no quaint curiosity from an age of innocence, dusted off and spruced up for our ironic inspection. It is instead that theatrical rarity, an uncompromising, cleareyed play about war — and not war as it echoes on the home front or in chambers of government, but war as a daily phenomenon for those who fight it.

This being the theater, “Journey’s End” does not portray the bloody hue and cry of battle, with men running through exploding fields with their buddies on their backs. That’s the stuff of movies, which even at their goriest and most cynical are at least partly fueled by the adrenaline rush that makes war seem like a boy’s big adventure.

The action of Mr. Sherriff’s play, on the other hand, is confined entirely to a dugout where the light is thick and gray, and the most exciting physical activity is watching earwigs race across a table. (Jonathan Fensom’s set and Jason Taylor’s lighting beautifully summon the requisite claustrophobia.) And though the clatter of artillery fire occasionally rends the air, it never entirely shatters the immense quiet, which, as one soldier puts it, “makes me feel we’re — we’re all just waiting for something.”

Waiting is the dynamic of “Journey’s End.” But with a fine, largely American cast that keeps its characters’ anxieties on a taut leash, watching the waiting is anything but tedious. Mr. Sherriff was writing from his own wartime experience. And though the play is as close to pure realism as early-20th-century theatrical conventions allowed, it captures the intense surrealism of living in a vacuum, in anticipation of the unknown.

It feels right that the only book quoted from in the play — a volume that Lieutenant Osborne (Boyd Gaines) keeps by his bunk — is “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” When he reads a nonsense poem from the novel, he is told, “I don’t see the point in that.”

Osborne answers, “Exactly, that’s just the point.”

If you’re someone who likes a personality checklist in breaking down a play, you could call Osborne, a middle-class schoolmaster, the avuncular one. By that standard, the four officers who share the dugout with him could be defined as the nervous one, Hibbert (Justin Blanchard); the salt-of-the-earth one, Trotter (John Ahlin); the idealistic newcomer, Raleigh (Stark Sands); and the romantic, tortured one, Stanhope (Hugh Dancy), the group’s captain. (The circle is rounded out by a droll Jefferson Mays, who won a Tony for “I Am My Own Wife,” as the company’s sly cook.)

But while “Journey’s End” may be the prototypical comrades-of-war play, what amazed me when I saw an earlier version of this production in London three years ago was how much it resists the expected formulas. Mr. Sherriff does not ennoble, demonize or sentimentalize (well, not to excess) his characters, or present them merely as the sum of their social backgrounds.

What they share is fear, of course, compounded by a creeping sense that there is no rhyme or reason to their existence. (They have little idea about the broader course of the war, and Trotter says he relies on his wife’s letters to tell him.) Since fear is what they have been conditioned not to reveal, it is how this corrosive emotion manifests itself that defines them.

For Hibbert, it’s in his eternal whining about his neuralgia; with Osborne, it’s in the rare moments of staring stillness that punctuate his jocular briskness. Stanhope drinks. “I couldn’t bear being fully conscious all the time,” he says.

A less confident director than Mr. Grindley might have felt a need to postmodernize “Journey’s End”: to present its characters as social artifacts amid a severely stylized production. But Mr. Grindley trusts in the play’s native integrity. And his straightforward approach finds a crisp psychological clarity in the fog of war that allows us to enter these characters’ heads, without any obvious polemical agenda blocking access.

To a man, the actors work with admirable finesse in making this possible. Much of what they have to say would be, in other contexts, dreary (discussions, say, of the ratio of lean to fat in the morning’s bacon). And because a majority of these characters come from the British middle classes, their speech is clipped and inhibited.

Yet the eyes of each consistently betray messier, softer feelings, to us if not to one another. When Stanhope tells Trotter he envies him because nothing upsets him, Mr. Ahlin’s rendering of Trotter’s short, noncommittal response makes it clear just how wrong Stanhope is.

Mr. Sands’s face is so open that it hurts. And Mr. Gaines, best known as a leading man (“Contact,” “She Loves Me”), turns in a lovely character performance that hints at the vulnerability beneath the bluff dignity.

Stanhope, the flashiest role, was first portrayed by a young Laurence Olivier. Mr. Dancy (who played Essex to Helen Mirren’s Elizabeth I on television) has the cheekbones and brooding gaze of Olivier in his matinee idol era. But he doesn’t overuse them, emphasizing instead just how much of a boy Stanhope is, despite the assumed official swagger.

“Tuck me in, Uncle,” he says to Osborne at bedtime, and there’s a part of him that really is back in the nursery.

It is in Stanhope that you see the glimmerings of the modernist sensibility that would come out of the carnage and loss of World War I. Though it was not Mr. Sherriff’s objective to write a pacifist play, he certainly conveyed the sense of meaninglessness that could descend on a man in war.

“D’you ever get a sudden feeling that everything’s going farther and farther away,” Stanhope asks Osborne, “till you’re the only thing in the world — and then the world begins going away, until you’re the only thing in the universe — and you struggle to get back — and can’t?”

Soldiers today surely continue to make that journey in their minds. During the first great war of the 21st century, this play about the first great war of the 20th century insists that we consider what such a journey does to a man.

JOURNEY’S END

By R. C. Sherriff; directed by David Grindley; sets and costumes by Jonathan Fensom; lighting by Jason Taylor; sound by Gregory Clarke; production stage manager, Arthur Gaffin; technical supervisor, Larry Morley; general managers, Alan Wasser and Allan Williams. Presented by Boyett Ostar Productions, Stephanie P. McClelland, Bill Rollnick, James D’Orta and Philip Geier. At the Belasco Theater, 111 West 44th Street; (212) 239-6200. Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes.

WITH: Hugh Dancy (Captain Stanhope), Boyd Gaines (Lieutenant Osborne), Jefferson Mays (Private Mason), John Ahlin (Second Lieutenant Trotter), Nick Berg Barnes (Lance Corporal Broughton), John Behlmann (Private Albert Brown), Justin Blanchard (Second Lieutenant Hibbert), Kieran Campion (German Soldier), John Curless (Captain Hardy/Sergeant Major), Richard Poe (Colonel) and Stark Sands (Second Lieutenant Raleigh).

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Journey’s End: Remembering the First World War

At times of great social upheaval, the arts help society understand events, deal with complex emotions and recover from collective trauma. As we enter the final year of commemorations marking 100 years since the end of the First World, the conflict continues to have a significant presence on the UK stage. Recent years have seen revivals of productions such as Birdsong and War Horse and new works including Balletboyz’s Young Men .  Journey’s End is one of the most commonly revived plays of the First World War and will grace the silver screen in 2017.

Written by R C Sherriff in 1927, Journey’s End draws on the playwright’s experience of combat in the First World War.  Set in an officers’ dugout over a period of four days in 1918, it is a story of comradeship, fear and heroism.

At first, Sherriff struggled to secure a West End performance of the play with many potential producers concerned that audiences would not want to watch a production about war, not least one without a leading lady or any female characters. After much consideration, The Incorporated Stage Society, a private members society that mounted performances of new and experimental work, agreed to include two semi-staged performances of the play in its Winter programme.

Opening at the Apollo Theatre on 9 th December 1928 and starring a 21-year-old Laurence Olivier as Captain Stanhope, the play proved to be a critical success.  Reviews commended Sherriff’s unromanticised portrayal of the realities of war and its emotional power noting that the play was worthy of a longer public run.

In January 1929 the play transferred to the Savoy Theatre under producer Maurice Browne.  Sherriff was keen to use the original cast from the Stage Society performances but Olivier was already committed to star in a production of Beau Geste and so Colin Clive took over the role.  The play was warmly received by audiences with Winston Churchill pronouncing it “brilliant”. Standing ovations met the cast on opening night and demand for tickets resulted in the addition of three matinee performances a week.  The BBC broadcast a wireless version on Armistice night 1929 and at a special performance for 320 Victoria Cross holders, Sherriff was applauded for a number of minutes.

Journey’s End is without doubt one of the greatest plays exploring the First World War with a poignant anti-war message.  However, its anti-war message is complex.  Histories of the war written in the 1960s present the British commanders as foolish men, far from the front line who needlessly sacrificed the lives of brave men in military blunders, and this idea pervades in the anti-war sentiments presented in Theatre Workshop’s Oh! What a Lovely War! and television’s Blackadder Goes Forth .  Ultimately, it was Sherriff’s intention to produce a play which paid tribute to his brothers-in-arms and the virtues of duty, perseverance and comradeship which he experienced on the Western Front.

Whilst the war in Journey’s End reveals the tragedy of conflict for both sides, the play’s narrative reminds audiences that the deaths were not without purpose.  For audiences in 1929, the Great War was not only in living memory, but its legacy was still visible with many families mourning the loss of loved ones and dealing with both the mental and physical wounds of conflict.  For inter-war audiences, Journey’s End offered an act of remembrance where those left behind could commemorate the sacrifice of husbands, fathers, sons and comrades and look forward to a future of peace.  As the Manchester Guardian printed in its 1928 review “ Journey’s End should become an official play of all the peace societies in England.  It is worth many million pamphlets.”

The powerful anti-war message of Journey’s End still resonates with modern audiences in a time when conflict shows no sign of abating. David Grindley’s 2004 production at the Comedy Theatre, London juxtaposed the play’s strain of dark humour with heart-breaking tragedy.  75 years after the play opened at the Savoy Theatre, reviews of Grindley’s production note the lasting power of the piece, the impact of the intimate setting and the crafting of complicated, recognisable characters.  Rather than concluding with a traditional curtain call, the production ended with the cast standing silently before a memorial inscribed with the names of the fallen, encouraging the audience to not only congratulate the cast, but to remember the sacrifice of the brave, ordinary heroes of the First World War.

To explore the V&A Theatre and Performance Collections visit Search the Collections and Search the Archives .

Sherriff was applauded for a number of minutes

If you are thinking about the comparison of the previous and current version of it then first of all I would like to suggest now New version of the Microsoft is more compatible.

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I think it’s David Grindley not David Brindley

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Journey's End

By r.c. sherriff, journey's end study guide.

Set in a World War I dugout from March 18 to March 21, 1918, R.C. Sherriff 's 1928 play Journey's End follows Captain Stanhope as he deals with alcoholism and symptoms of PTSD while commanding a group of British army officers in the lead up to Operation Michael, a German attack on British trenches. The play ends with Stanhope's two closest officers dying in the line of duty.

The seventh drama written by Sheriff, Journey's End was initially rejected by many theaters due to an assumption that the public didn't want to watch plays about war, particularly plays with no leading lady. After its eventual premiere at London's Apollo Theatre, the play saw enormous success in Europe and America, and has been adapted for film and television. Revivals of the play have received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of A Play, and a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.

Journey’s End Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Journey’s End is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How does Sherriff create tension in the duologue between Osborne and Stanhope at the end of Act 1?

Stanhope meets the revelation that Raleigh has joined his company with unease. The presence of Raleigh introduces a new conflict to the play that involves the themes of heroism, alcoholism, and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Stanhope knows...

What are Trotter's quotes showing his emotions?

From the text:

Trotter (throwing his spoon with a clatter into the plate) : Oh, I say, but dam!

Trotter : Well, boys ! ’Ere we are for six days again. Six bloomin’ eternal days. {He makes a calculation on the table.)

Trotter comes down the steps,...

How Sherriff presents the true horrors of was through the character of Raleigh?

The difference between the fantasy of war and its true, horrific and demoralizing nature is one of the play's major themes. The theme is most overtly revealed through Raleigh's character arc. When Raleigh first arrives, his boyish excitement at...

Study Guide for Journey’s End

Journey's End study guide contains a biography of R. C. Sherriff, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Journey's End
• Journey's End Summary
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Essays for Journey’s End

Journey's End essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the play Journey's End by R. C. Sherriff.

• The Depiction of War in Journey’s End and Exposure
• How does Sherriff present Heroism in Journey's End?
• How Stanhope Generates Conflict in the Opening Act
• Comparison of the mental suffering created by war
• Human Decency in a World of Human Waste

Wikipedia Entries for Journey’s End

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Journey's End

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1928

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‘An incredible journey’: Fran Kirby to leave Chelsea at end of the season

• Midfielder is club’s all-time top scorer with 115
• ‘It has been one of the biggest privileges of my life’

Fran Kirby has announced she will call time on her career at Chelsea at the end of the season. The 30-year-old England midfielder has helped the club to six WSL titles, five FA Cups and two League Cups since signing from Reading in 2015. She leaves the club as the all-time leading goalscorer with 115 goals in 205 appearances.

In an emotional interview on the club’s website , she said: “To leave with the trophies that I have won, with the teammates I’ve played with – some of the world’s best players – it has been one of the biggest privileges of my life.

“Winning trophies has been amazing, but playing with the people I’ve met has been pretty incredible. For a young girl from Reading, it’s not too bad.”

Fran has something to say... 🥲 After so many incredible memories, this season will be @FranKirby 's last at Chelsea. pic.twitter.com/9D9sweEyIG — Chelsea FC Women (@ChelseaFCW) May 4, 2024

Kirby joined after standout performances for England in their third-place finish at the 2015 Women’s World Cup. In the 2017‑18 season, she won the inaugural Women’s Footballer of the Year award from the Football Writers’ Association after scoring 25 goals in 31 matches in all competitions. She also picked up the PFA Footballer of the Year award and was included in the PFA WSL Team of the year, two feats she repeated in the 2020-21 season.

The midfielder, with 19 goals in 70 international appearances, started every match as England secured their first international trophy, the European Championship, in 2022.

Last season’s campaign was halted by a knee injury that also ended her hopes of appearing in the 2023 World Cup, and Kirby saluted the support she received during that time. “When I had my illness, my injuries, that’s when I’ve made some friends for life. I will never forget that no matter how bad I felt during those moments, I always felt loved and supported.”

Chelsea’s general manager, Paul Green, said: “Fran has been a hugely important player for us over the last nine years. She has played an integral role in the club’s success, winning 15 trophies and earning numerous individual accolades.

“She is the club’s leading goalscorer in the modern era and leaves Chelsea with legendary status. We sincerely thank Fran for her contributions and wish her well for the future.”

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The player has announced her imminent departure in a week when her coach, Emma Hayes, who leaves to join the USA national team this summer, conceded that “the title is done” after Wednesday’s thrilling 4-3 defeat at Liverpool .

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