It might sound like I'm being harsh on this play for some of its class assumptions, but it also shows that the war affected everyone. Soldiers of all classes and all ranks died on the battlefields of World War One. Indeed, the casualty rate amongst frontline officers was horrific. Worse than the ordinary ranks as a percentage. So, if this story is the usual story then that's to be accepted. Because it is a moving story. You do feel for the characters and you sense the oncoming story. She doesn't know that if I went up those steps into the front line—without being doped up with whiskey—I'd go mad with fright." Stanhope, Act I, p. 31 The Night My Number Came Up – which was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay (NB: both films were nominated for the 1955 BAFTA awards.)

At the end of the First World War and during the years that followed, many authors, artists and playwrights responded to the conflict through their work. One such example is the play Journey’s End by R C Sherriff.maybe i'm just sensitive today, cause i'm not an easy crier. or maybe this play is just like that. i don't know. Private Mason, a servant cook, often forgets about ingredients and key parts of the food that he prepares for the officers. He is really part of the infantry but the company has let him be a part-time cook.

I have just put down this classic WWI play by R.C. Sherriff, and I swear that for all intents and purposes I'm still in that officers' dug-out in Flanders while the noise and smoke of a concentrated enemy bombardment steadily increase in intensity. And it occurs to me that my intention of writing any sort of review is presumptuous at best. How can I be qualified to comment on life in the trenches, or know for sure what it must have been like to lead a daytime raid into no-man's-land with a stiff upper lip and a tot of rum sloshing around in my fear-shrunken belly and nothing in the world more certain than the knowledge that enemy machine-gun fire is waiting ahead to mow me down? The answer is simple -- I'm not and I can't. Even though I have read many anti-war poems dealing with the First World War, which were all written by youths like Owen and Sassoon who had experienced the war in the trenches, this is the first time that I have read a play regarding it. This is a WWI classic play that was not going anywhere, simply because it had no female part. Finally when actor Laurence Olivier took the lead, the play became popular. Perhaps most significant though is that very little attention is paid to the fact that this is a British Infantry Company. There's no flag to remind us who's side we are meant to be on because ultimately this trench could be any trench regardless of which side of the front line it's on.Here is an extract from the play which shows the Brits praising their nemesis -- the Germans -- rather than shredding them to bits. This alone shows you that Mr. Sherriff wrote the book from his heart and provides credit where it is due. Osborne and Raleigh discuss how slowly time passes at the front, and the fact that both of them played rugby before the war and that Osborne was a schoolmaster before he signed up to fight. While Raleigh appears interested, Osborne points out that it is of little use now. Sherriff, Robert Cedric (1962). The Wells of St. Mary's. Hutchinson Library Services. ISBN 0091174406. OCLC 7185868. Osborne describes the madness of war when describing how German soldiers allowed the British to rescue a wounded soldier in no man's land, while the next day the two sides shelled each other heavily. He describes the war as "silly".

Second Lieutenant James "Jimmy" Raleigh is a young and naive officer who joins the company. Raleigh knew Stanhope from school, where Stanhope was skipper at rugby; Raleigh refers to Stanhope as Dennis. He also has a sister whom Stanhope is dating. To forget, you little fool—to forget! D'you understand? To Forget! You think there's no limit to what a man can bear?" Stanhope, Act III, Scene 2, p. 85Similarly, Hardy uses the rhetorical device of understatement to casually suggest that there are only about two million rats in the trenches. Through this ironic banter, Sheriff introduces the theme of humor as a means of distracting oneself from the horrors of war. Hardy and Osborne’s conversation also establishes the impending German offensive strike, which foreshadows the play’s calamitous end. Raleigh, an 18-year-old officer, reports for the first time to Osborne. Raleigh reveals that he wanted to join the company because his sister is engaged to Stanhope. Osborne detects Raleigh's idolization of Stanhope and gently cautions him that life on the front lines has a habit of changing men. Trewin, J. C. "Sherriff, Robert Cedric". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/31678. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) Curtis, James (1998). James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters. Boston: Faber and Faber. p.71. ISBN 0-571-19285-8. A tiny sound comes from where RALEIGH is lying—something between a sob and a moan." Stage direction, Act III, Scene 3, p. 94

That night, Stanhope, Trotter, and Hibbert get drunk on champagne, which the Colonel and other officials provided as a reward. Hibbert drinks more than he normally does, and tells Stanhope that Raleigh isn’t celebrating with them because he’s with the soldiers on watch. This enrages Stanhope, and when Raleigh comes into the dugout, he asks why he would eat with the sergeants rather than the officers. Raleigh admits he couldn’t imagine feasting and partying on the day of Osborne’s death. He asks how Stanhope can do so, and Stanhope yells, “To forget! You think there’s no limit to what a man can bear?” The play was adapted for television in 1988, starring Jeremy Northam as Stanhope, Edward Petherbridge as Osborne, and Timothy Spall as Trotter. [20] It held close to the original script although there were changes, the most obvious being the depiction on camera of the raid, which happens off-stage in the theatre production. I believe Raleigh'll go on liking you—and looking up to you—through everything. There's something very deep, and rather fine, about hero-worship." Osborne, Act I, p. 33 Laurence Olivier starred as Stanhope in the first performance of "Journey's End" in 1928; the play was an instant stage success and remains a remarkable anti-war classic.

But I love the theatre and I’ve wanted to read Journey’s End for a while now because I’ve heard it was beautiful and tragic. And they are my favourite adjectives when it comes to literature. Sherriff served as an officer in the 9th battalion of the East Surrey Regiment in the First World War, taking part in the fighting at Vimy Ridge and Loos. [7] He was severely wounded at Passchendaele near Ypres in 1917. [8] Post war period [ edit ] The scenes between the men were extremely subtle and really drove home the complete and utter futility of it all. And I think it’s this subtlety that made the final scene all the more haunting. When Stanhope enters the dugout, he’s stunned to see Raleigh. Rather than embracing him, he simply asks how he got here. He then turns his attention to Osborne and Trotter, another officer, and the group sits down to eat together. Eventually, the fourth officer of Stanhope’s infantry, Hibbert, enters and claims that he doesn’t know if he can eat because of his neuralgia. This obviously annoys Stanhope, who urges Hibbert to eat, but Hibbert goes to bed. “Another little worm trying to wriggle home,” Stanhope says. After supper that evening Stanhope confided to Osborne that he was fearful of young Raleigh's opinion, and he declared that he meant to censor all the young officer's mail, lest Raleigh reveal to his sister the kind of man Stanhope, her fiance, had become. Stanhope was bitter that Raleigh had landed in his company when there were so many others in France to which he might have been assigned. He was also concerned over Lieutenant Hibbert, another officer who was malingering in an effort to get sent home to England. Stanhope, who hated a quitter, resolved that Hibbert should be forced to stay.