The conceit is simple. In 1918 a group of British officers wait in an underground shelter for the German army to begin what was then the largest military offensive in human history. Two men who knew each other as friends before the war find their relationship, and their selves, radically altered. An older man tries to support both of them as they struggle with the war and each other. IWM holds a vast archive of unique documents dating from 1914 to the present day. Among the archives that we hold is the original manuscripts of the play, Journey's End by R.C. Sheriff. Journey's End was based on Sheriff's own experiences as an army officer in the First World War. The story plays out over four days, the 18th to the 21st of March 1918, the start of the German Spring Offensive. The officers selected to lead the raid were Osborne, because of his experience, and Raleigh, because of his youthful vitality. Stanhope hated to send either, for he needed Osborne and he was afraid that Raleigh was too inexperienced. Above that, there was the possibility that they would never return. A cover of Sherriff's "Journey's End" shows soldiers holding rifles fixed with bayonets inside a trench. Sherriff also wrote prose. A novelised version of Journey's End, co-written with Vernon Bartlett, was published in 1930. [17] His 1939 novel, The Hopkins Manuscript is an H. G. Wells-influenced post-apocalyptic story about an earth devastated because of a collision with the Moon. [18] Its sober language and realistic depiction of an average man coming to terms with a ruined England is said [ citation needed] to have been an influence on later science fiction authors such as John Wyndham and Brian Aldiss. The Fortnight in September, an earlier novel, published in 1931, is a rather more plausible story about a Bognor holiday enjoyed by a lower-middle-class family from Dulwich. [19] It was nominated by Kazuo Ishiguro as a book to 'inspire, uplift and offer escape' in a list compiled by The Guardian during the COVID-19 pandemic, describing it as "just about the most uplifting, life-affirming novel I can think of right now". [20]

All of the action takes place in a British officers dugout during the final year of the First World War. Captain Stanhope, respected and revered by his men, manages to function by drinking copious amounts of whisky to numb the horrors of the trenches. Osbourne, his second in command, finds solace in literature and reads from "Alice in Wonderland", as both a release from reality and a way to understand the absurdity of what is happening. Into the mix comes Raleigh, a young second lieutenant, fresh from home, who pulls strings to get in Stanhope's company, because he hero-worshiped him as the rugger team captain from school days and also because Stanhope is involved with his sister. Tensions arise because of Raleigh's naivety and hero-worship, and Stanhope's fears that he is not worthy of such praise and his worry that news of his drinking and despair might reach the ears of his intended. Stanhope also worries that young Raleigh's eagerness to join him has doomed him with the rest of them. I loved the book from start to finish. It shows the horrors of war and the rough and tough life spent inside dugouts without glorifying it in any way. And who better for the job than R. C. Sherriff who had first-hand experience of it! The actors were humbled. It gave them an incredible insight. Coming face-to-face with guys who’ve genuinely been on the frontline and put their lives at risk was a very sobering moment. A radio adaptation by Peter Watts was produced for BBC Radio 4's Saturday Night Theatre in November 1970, featuring Martin Jarvis as Captain Stanhope. In spite of its context of combat violence, JOURNEY'S END is, for the most part, a leisurely play. Most of the action occurs offstage, and except for the final moments, the pacing is deliberately slow. The atmosphere in the trenches is one of anxious boredom as the men wait for the big German assault. To escape the tedium and forget the sudden destruction and death hovering about, they indulge in aimless banter, stale jokes, and a kind of grotesque parody of domesticity. But the more casual the men try to be, the more tense the atmosphere becomes.The theme of alcoholism arises with Hardy and Osborne’s discussion of Stanhope’s ability to drink more than other men. Hardy suggests that Osborne, since he is older and more levelheaded, should be in charge, not Stanhope. But Osborne is loyal to Stanhope, whom he says he loves. The exchange is ambiguous: either Osborne has genuine affection for Stanhope’s ability to command, or he is simply maintaining his position within the military hierarchy by refusing to disparage his superior; likely, Osborne is influenced by a mix of the two motivations. He added: “You get pretty much mixed audiences now. Women might not buy history books about the first world war, but they would go and see that play.” 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. 85

And a lot of people may dismiss the scenes and the conversations as slow but I think that is the whole point and what makes the. In the films set around WW1 there is always something happening, shells exploding, machine guns hammering but in reality there was a lot of time where the men were just waiting. 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. 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. Robert Cedric Sherriff, FSA, FRSL (6 June 1896 – 13 November 1975) [1] was an English writer best known for his play Journey's End, [2] which was based on his experiences as an army officer in the First World War. [3] He wrote several plays, many novels, and multiple screenplays, and was nominated for an Academy Award and two BAFTA awards. [4] Early life [ edit ]At no point do we leave the dugout, not even to enter the war's notorious trenches per se, yet sounds of the war are heard throughout every scene. It's a claustrophobic, intense situation and story. Apparently Sherriff originally wanted to title it Suspense or Waiting, which are actually better titles in some ways. 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. Journey's End @ the Greenwich Theatre - A Review - Londoneer". Archived from the original on 19 February 2013 . Retrieved 19 February 2013. In 1930, James Whale directed an eponymous film based on the play, starring Colin Clive, David Manners and Ian Maclaren. [18]