Just Topping!

R.C. Sheriff’s ‘Journey’s End’ directed by David Grindley is a remarkably powerful piece, that sheds new light on the often all too familiar war genre. Following life in the captain’s dug-out over a 6-day period on the front line, we are drawn into their congested underground ‘world’ and observe the men fronting normality in a vain attempt to disregard the war outside and make it through their 144-hour shift.

The play introduces Raleigh (Graham Butler) to the support-line trenches: a boy of 18 who has managed to cheat his way into the company of Captain Stanhope (Nick Hendrix), the man dating his sister and his hero from school. RADA graduate Nick Hendrix does a splendid job at this role (originally played by a young Lawrence Olivier), showing the awkward balance that occurs when Raleigh brings a reminder of home to the front-line; disconnected worlds that the captain wanted to remain separate. Hendrix is strong throughout, seamlessly passing through the character’s huge mix of emotions and manages to subtly convey his mounting paranoia. Simon Dutton offers us a virtually flawless performance in his role as Lieutenant Osborn- the ‘Dad’ figure to the company. A warm and strong character on the surface, but with just a single glance he was able to share with the audience a wealth of sadness underpinning this character. Other commendable performances came from Daniel Hanna as the nice-but-dim cook and Christian Patterson as the rather large 2nd Lieutenant Trotter. Both characters provided a refreshing comic antithesis to the tense environment as they try to live through the war on the ‘life goes on’ cliché. It was a great relief to see the strong ensemble attaining character depth and an overall avoidance of stereotypical ‘Dad’s Army’ characters. Young Raleigh’s enthusiasm and excitement offers a bitter contrast to the worn-down spirits of the other men, but I felt that Graham Butler over-played this naivety and youth (and had an excessively shrill R.P accent) but notably grew as the play progressed.

The cinematic accuracy of Jonathon Fenson’s set design must get a mention. The worn, and very lived-in dug-out that acted as the single setting for the piece helps to establish the claustrophobic atmosphere that characterises the performance and manages to close the gap between war films and plays, drawing the audience right in to the heart of the action. ‘Action’ is a term I use loosely here, as the majority of the play is taken up by the men’s trivial conversations of home, women and food, but the inescapable war outside is evident in all of the characters throughout and their avoidance makes the play far more poignant than any ‘action’ war play.

One of the most striking elements to the performance was the subtle way the play involved the audience further than most 4th-wall naturalism. Present throughout the entire piece was an almost inaudible wind sound that hummed throughout the auditorium- as if it all was too quiet. This functioned to highlight the pregnant pauses that characterised the piece and emphasised the utter silence of the men’s trench and their isolation from the real world. As the play progressed, this tumbleweed-esque noise sharply contrasted with the growing gunfire sounds, highlighting the ineludible omnipresence of war. As the play built to its peak, the auditorium was suddenly filled with a cacophony of gunfire, putting the audience into an uncomfortable and unnerving spotlight; we became equally part of the battle. As the crisis comes to a head, the men run out into the mighty gunfire, which wrenches the soul, as we all know too well what fate lies ahead of them.

The actors did not bow at the end of the piece, but instead paid homage to the soldiers of the First World War. Standing in front of a backdrop displaying lists of the dead, we as an audience have a poignant reminder that these soldiers- which we have grown to know and love during the performance- are just like thousands of others. An extremely moving departure to frame the piece.

‘Journey’s End’ is a truly sublime, thought-provoking piece of theatre that I would strongly recommend watching.