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Journey's End
The moving portrayal of life in the trenches in WW1, now a new film from the director of Suite Française, starring Sam Clafin, Paul Bettany, Stephen Graham and Asa Butterfield
Set in the First World War, Journey's End is the story of a group of British officers on the front line, in a dugout in the trenches in France. Raleigh, a new eighteen-year-old officer fresh out of English public school, joins the besieged company of his friend and cricketing hero Stanhope, and finds him dramatically changed. 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.
'Its unrelenting tension, and its regard for human decency in a vast world of human waste, are impressive and, even now, moving' Clive Barnes
Set in the First World War, Journey's End is the story of a group of British officers on the front line, in a dugout in the trenches in France. Raleigh, a new eighteen-year-old officer fresh out of English public school, joins the besieged company of his friend and cricketing hero Stanhope, and finds him dramatically changed. 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.
'Its unrelenting tension, and its regard for human decency in a vast world of human waste, are impressive and, even now, moving' Clive Barnes
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1928
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About the author
R.C. Sherriff
25 books150 followersRobert Cedric Sherriff was an English writer best known for his play Journey's End which was based on his experiences as a Captain in World War I. He wrote several plays, novels, and screenplays, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) and two British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 356 reviews
March 30, 2015
Journey's End is considered a classic of First World War literature now, but at the time, it was rejected by almost every producer in the West End (‘How can I put on a play with no leading lady?’ one manager complained, providing Sherriff with the title to his future autobiography). It finally secured a pitiful two-night run at the Apollo in December of 1928, where it had the great good fortune to feature an unknown twenty-one-year-old actor in the lead role – one Laurence Olivier. It, and he, never looked back.
It's a beautiful part for an actor, in a play that's wonderfully lean and controlled – a claustrophobic, tense study of combat trauma in three efficient acts. There is only one set – the inside of a British dugout – and we are not allowed out of it for the duration of the play, watching the interactions between Captain Stanhope and his four officers as a major German attack approaches.
All of them deal with the tension in their own ways – Stanhope self-medicates with whisky; Osborne, his second in command, is calm and stoical; Hibbert attempts to feign a debilitating ‘neuralgia’; and Trotter concentrates on enjoying his food to the fullest.
The newest arrival, Raleigh, knew Stanhope at school (where he was ‘skipper of rugger at Barford, and kept wicket for the eleven’); he has pulled strings to be in his boyhood hero's company, and through him we see the changes that a year on the Western Front has wrought on Stanhope.
In its setting, and in the dynamic of its characters, you can see this play standing squarely behind almost every televisual and film representation of the trenches ever since. (It is practically a blueprint for Blackadder Goes Forth, with company cook Mason doing duty as comic relief.) It is also very moving – perhaps most of all because its characters are not against the war at all. They believe that what they're doing is important; we, watching from a distance, are almost overwhelmed by the meaningfulness that can be created from futility.
June 3, 2022
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“And because he's stuck it till his nerves have got battered to bits, he's called a drunkard.”
Journey’s End is a play set during World War One that is now considered as part of the literary canon. The play engages with the different responses to the horrors of war, as a few officers led by Captain Stanhope prepare for another wave of attack inside their dugout on the front line. Interestingly, this was one of Laurence Oliver’s earliest works and one of the stepping stones for what would become one of the most illustrious acting careers of the 20th century.
The men all deal with the horrors of war differently and Sheriff uses each character to show the various things soldiers turned to in order to cope with the ordeals of war. From Trotter’s overeating to Stanhope becoming an alcoholic. It shows their individual bravery, but the cost such things came at.
The context as the play begins is that the German forces are preparing to launch a new major attack, and these officers must prepare and remain on the front line. They have orders to not retreat under any circumstances. Each deals with the fear and tension in their own way, and Sheriff shows the characters to be at different stages in their view of the war, from those who have lost hope, to the newcomer Raleigh who still views warfare through a romanticised lens.
“You must always think of it like that if you can. Think of it all as - as romantic. It helps.”
R.C. Sherriff presents an authentic depiction of how soldiers externalise the internal conflict they are facing, from those who feel ashamed, to those who believe that death or denial is better than facing the reality of yet another attack. I imagine that much of this comes from the author’s personal experience on the frontline during World War One, and I believe this influence is what makes Journey’s End so sensitive and successful.
Throughout the play, Sherriff slowly builds the suspense as attack threatens, and as he does so he explores his superbly developed characters and introduces a tone of dread but one with moments of dark humour and then small disputes between officers. In this, some may call it slow-paced, but personally I thought it improved the experience as it again depicted a realistic situation that shows each character’s defence mechanisms.
“She doesn't know that if I went up those steps into the front line – without being doped with whisky – I'd go mad with fright.”
Journey’s End is a play with fantastic dialogue that quickly establishes firm relationships between audience and character, in a performance that builds throughout to a climactic, heart-wrenching finale.
4.5/5 STARS
“And because he's stuck it till his nerves have got battered to bits, he's called a drunkard.”
Journey’s End is a play set during World War One that is now considered as part of the literary canon. The play engages with the different responses to the horrors of war, as a few officers led by Captain Stanhope prepare for another wave of attack inside their dugout on the front line. Interestingly, this was one of Laurence Oliver’s earliest works and one of the stepping stones for what would become one of the most illustrious acting careers of the 20th century.
The men all deal with the horrors of war differently and Sheriff uses each character to show the various things soldiers turned to in order to cope with the ordeals of war. From Trotter’s overeating to Stanhope becoming an alcoholic. It shows their individual bravery, but the cost such things came at.
The context as the play begins is that the German forces are preparing to launch a new major attack, and these officers must prepare and remain on the front line. They have orders to not retreat under any circumstances. Each deals with the fear and tension in their own way, and Sheriff shows the characters to be at different stages in their view of the war, from those who have lost hope, to the newcomer Raleigh who still views warfare through a romanticised lens.
“You must always think of it like that if you can. Think of it all as - as romantic. It helps.”
R.C. Sherriff presents an authentic depiction of how soldiers externalise the internal conflict they are facing, from those who feel ashamed, to those who believe that death or denial is better than facing the reality of yet another attack. I imagine that much of this comes from the author’s personal experience on the frontline during World War One, and I believe this influence is what makes Journey’s End so sensitive and successful.
Throughout the play, Sherriff slowly builds the suspense as attack threatens, and as he does so he explores his superbly developed characters and introduces a tone of dread but one with moments of dark humour and then small disputes between officers. In this, some may call it slow-paced, but personally I thought it improved the experience as it again depicted a realistic situation that shows each character’s defence mechanisms.
“She doesn't know that if I went up those steps into the front line – without being doped with whisky – I'd go mad with fright.”
Journey’s End is a play with fantastic dialogue that quickly establishes firm relationships between audience and character, in a performance that builds throughout to a climactic, heart-wrenching finale.
4.5/5 STARS
February 15, 2018
Life in a dugout. The steps lead towards a trench.
ROBERT Cedric Sherriff was born in 1896 and educated at Kingston Grammar School and New College, Oxford. On the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the army and served as a captain in the East Surrey regiment. Once the war ended, an interest in amateur theatricals led him to
try his hand at writing.
The huge success of his play, Journey’s End, published in 1929, in both Europe and America enabled Sherriff to become a full-time writer. He wrote many successful plays and screenplays. He also wrote novels. However, the English writer was best known for his play Journey's End, which was based on his experiences as an army officer in the First World War.
A cover of Sherriff's "Journey's End" shows soldiers holding rifles fixed with bayonets inside a trench.
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.
Dreamers
By SIEGFRIED SASSOON
Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land,
Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows.
In the great hour of destiny they stand,
Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows.
Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win
Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives.
Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin
They think of firelit homes, clean beds and wives.
I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats,
And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain,
Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats,
And mocked by hopeless longing to regain
Bank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats,
And going to the office in the train.
Journey’s End opens in a dugout in the trenches in France in March 1918. It deals with the lives of several officers who drink, eat, read and sleep in the dugout. When not doing any of these things, they are out in the trenches keeping watch or fighting with the enemy or laying barbed wire. But Mr. Sherriff never takes the story out of the dugout, as somebody is always telling as to what took place in the trenches or on the battlefield.
Battles and wars are all about facing the enemy and fighting with all your might and courage. However, sometimes it also means running at full speed to escape death like the following extract shows:
“TROTTER: Just wear your belt with revolver case on it. Must have your revolver to shoot rats. And your gas mask – come here – I’ll show you. (He helps Raleigh.) You wear it sort of tucked up under your chin like a serviette.
RALEIGH: Yes. I was shown the way at home.
TROTTER: Now your hat. That’s right. You don’t want a walking stick. It gets in your way if you have to run fast.
RALEIGH: Why – er – do you have to run fast?
TROTTER: Oh, Lord, yes often. If you see a Minnie coming – that’s a big trench mortar shell, you know – short for Minnywerfer – you see them come right out of the Boche trenches, right up in the air, then down, down, down; and you have to judge it and run like stink sometimes.”
Ravaged battlefield, c. 1916.
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.
“RALEIGH (after a pause): The Germans are really quite decent, aren’t they? I mean, outside the newspapers.
OSBORNE: Yes. (Pause.) I remember up at Wipers we had a man shot when he was out on patrol. Just at dawn. We couldn’t get him in that night. He lay out there groaning all day. Next night three of our men crawled out to get him in. It was so near the German trenches that they could have shot our fellows one by one. But, when our men began dragging the wounded man back over the rough ground, a big German officer stood up in the trenches and called out: ‘Carry him!’ – and our fellows stood up and carried the man back and the German officer fired some lights for them to see by.
RALEIGH: How topping!
OSBORNE: Next day we blew each other’s trenches to blazes.
RALEIGH: It all seems rather – silly, doesn’t it?
OSBORNE: It does rather.”
Two German soldiers and their mule wearing gas masks in World War One, 1916.
All soldiers and officers had to wear masks for protection from the deadly gas called Phosgene which was released into the atmosphere by the Germans. The following extract shows the details regarding it:
“TROTTER: I reckon they will. I remember one morning last week – we was coming out of the salient just when it was getting light in the morning – it was at the time when the Boche was sending over a lot of gas that smells like pear-drops, you know?
OSBORNE: I know. Phosgene.
TROTTER: That’s it. We were scared to hell of it. All of a sudden we smelt that funny sweet smell and a fellow shouted ‘Gas!’ – and we put on our masks, and then I spotted what it was.”
Gas warfare informational poster of World War One showing a soldier with his gas mask off.
Often it is the futility and senselessness of war that makes you appreciate the value of life and the beauty of nature which you earlier might not have. In how many colours have you seen the sun rising and setting? Read how Osborne feels in the following quote:
“OSBORNE: I never knew the sun could rise in so many ways till I came out
here. Green, and pink, and red, and blue, and grey. Extraordinary, isn’t it?”
Sometimes you have to read something funny or say something humorous to kill the boredom and drabness of war or as an escape from reality. Do control your laughter on reading what Trotter is reciting.
“TROTTER (reciting):
‘Tell me, mother, what is that,
That looks like strawberry jam?
Hush, hush, my dear; it’s only Pa
Run over by a tram – ’”
Osborne reads Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” during his rest hours for enjoyment and escapism. He reads loudly so that Trotter too can hear it.
“How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale?
How cheerfully he seems to grin
And neatly spread his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!”
Even crocodile smiles can be so deceiving. We had always known about its tears. By the way, Osborne is reading in candlelight as sunshine hardly comes inside the dugouts. When several candles are burning at the same time, it can make the temperature quite hot and unbearable. Then there were rats which nibbled at your shoes and worms which made you feel queasy.
The officers only get to sleep in short stints of two to three hours. On waking up, they have their tea and then immediately head for the trenches for duty. The cook too sleeps in his dugout and is always being called by one officer or another to serve breakfast, lunch or dinner or tea with jam
and bread.
Two German soldiers keep watch while the rest sleep in a trench. Lice, dirt, vermin, dysentery, battle fatigue/shell shock, trench foot, trench mouth, mud, snow, heat and rain were some of the other odds they faced besides the enemy.
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!
No caption necessary as the quote says it all.
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 great anti-war classic. The cover of the book that I own shows the poster for the 1929 Savoy Theatre production of Journey’s End. An officer can be seen
climbing the steps leading to a trench from the dugout.
A flyer for a classic play that was running in Ypres, Belgium.
A film based on the book was made in 1976. It was called "Aces High". However, its director, Jack Gold, has also added some portions from Cecil Lewis's book "Sagittarius Rising". Besides, he has shifted the First World War story from trenches to the sky with air force pilots involved in dogfights. Even then the story remains pretty much the same. It has a great cast which includes Malcolm McDowell, Christopher Plummer, Peter Firth and Simon Ward.
A Japanese DVD cover of "Aces High".
January 21, 2020
I was going to give this particular book/play three stars, but on deeper reflection, I'm going with four. I had never heard of this classic, until I spotted it in a book sale, I enjoyed the premise, and I thought I'd give it a chance.
The play itself is set entirely in the trenches in March 1918, and tells the story of a commander and his officers over the time period of three days.
I thought the atmosphere in this book was rather confined, and this is obviously because of the setting in which the characters are based. Some of the scenes seem somewhat long and slow, but I think this was the point. Suspense is masterfully being built.
I thought the characters were tremendously well developed, and I was made to feel their anguish and fear. There were some moments of banter and dark humor between the men which I think made this play seem even more real. But overall, I think that final powerful scene did it for me. So haunting.
The play itself is set entirely in the trenches in March 1918, and tells the story of a commander and his officers over the time period of three days.
I thought the atmosphere in this book was rather confined, and this is obviously because of the setting in which the characters are based. Some of the scenes seem somewhat long and slow, but I think this was the point. Suspense is masterfully being built.
I thought the characters were tremendously well developed, and I was made to feel their anguish and fear. There were some moments of banter and dark humor between the men which I think made this play seem even more real. But overall, I think that final powerful scene did it for me. So haunting.
June 20, 2016
"Journey's End" - R.C. Sherriff’s short (96 page), 1928 play about a group of officers in the trenches shortly before a German offensive - is very much of its time, and yet remains profoundly moving.
R.C. Sherriff wrote the play based on his own experiences, and appears to have no particular axe to grind - neither anti-war, nor patriotic - with its primary focus on the toll placed on the young officers and the working class soldiers thrown into such a horrific situation.
18 year old, Second Lieutenant Raleigh is the new arrival in the company commanded by his former schoolboy hero, Captain Stanhope. Raleigh is only three years younger, but there’s a gulf in terms of the wartime experience that separates the pair. Stanhope’s world weariness and stiff upper lip mentality mean that the intolerable stress he is under is only ever alluded to. He needs a bottle of whiskey each day to be able to cope. Even this coping mechanism lets him down as the play develops. The small ensemble cast of eight primary characters are all essential to providing a dramatic and revealing dynamic that, in such a short book, says as much about the devastation and waste of the great war as much longer novels.
"Journey's End" is a gripping and powerful read. I’d love to see this dialogue delivered on stage. It’s no surprise that this play continues to be revived. It’s a stunning and deeply moving evocation of the sacrifices made by so many young people during the conflict of 1914-1918 and well worth the hour or two it takes to read.
5/5
R.C. Sherriff wrote the play based on his own experiences, and appears to have no particular axe to grind - neither anti-war, nor patriotic - with its primary focus on the toll placed on the young officers and the working class soldiers thrown into such a horrific situation.
18 year old, Second Lieutenant Raleigh is the new arrival in the company commanded by his former schoolboy hero, Captain Stanhope. Raleigh is only three years younger, but there’s a gulf in terms of the wartime experience that separates the pair. Stanhope’s world weariness and stiff upper lip mentality mean that the intolerable stress he is under is only ever alluded to. He needs a bottle of whiskey each day to be able to cope. Even this coping mechanism lets him down as the play develops. The small ensemble cast of eight primary characters are all essential to providing a dramatic and revealing dynamic that, in such a short book, says as much about the devastation and waste of the great war as much longer novels.
"Journey's End" is a gripping and powerful read. I’d love to see this dialogue delivered on stage. It’s no surprise that this play continues to be revived. It’s a stunning and deeply moving evocation of the sacrifices made by so many young people during the conflict of 1914-1918 and well worth the hour or two it takes to read.
5/5
November 3, 2011
“You must always think of it like that if you can. Think of it as – as romantic. It helps.”
This review is going to be a quick one because it’s impossible to really go into depth without spoiling the story.
I don’t normally read plays because they seem to unleash a wave of high school-related memories and trying to think of quotes and line numbers and acts and basically getting myself into a tizzy.
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.
Journey’s End is an extremely claustrophobic play, set in the trenches in March 1918 as the war is drawing to a close. It tells the story of a group of officers and their commander over a course of three days. Apparently R.C Sherriff intended the play to be called ‘Suspense’ or ‘Waiting’ and, I have to say, they both would have been perfect titles for this.
This play was so tense.
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.
Instead of writing a play that is about the combat, Sherriff chose to focus on the men and their feelings. The most striking part was that he could have chosen any group of soldiers on either side of No Man’s Land and still had the same play, the same feelings and the same message.
I loved the characters, each and every one of them feeling real to me. Complex Stanhope with his inner conflicts and extremely human fears, the dark humorous banter between Osborne and Mason, Hibbert and his terror, the ever changing relationship between Stanhope and the young Raleigh, the enthusiastic, optimistic officer who becomes more and more disillusioned when he begins the truth and sees what happens to men who are fighting.
I loved them all.
This play reminded me of the preface that Wilfred Owen wrote: “This book is not about heroes. English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them.”
And it’s so true.
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.
Maybe I shouldn’t go and see this on stage… the public tears could be embarrassing.
This review is part of my Poppies & Prose feature. You can find out more here.
This review is going to be a quick one because it’s impossible to really go into depth without spoiling the story.
I don’t normally read plays because they seem to unleash a wave of high school-related memories and trying to think of quotes and line numbers and acts and basically getting myself into a tizzy.
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.
Journey’s End is an extremely claustrophobic play, set in the trenches in March 1918 as the war is drawing to a close. It tells the story of a group of officers and their commander over a course of three days. Apparently R.C Sherriff intended the play to be called ‘Suspense’ or ‘Waiting’ and, I have to say, they both would have been perfect titles for this.
This play was so tense.
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.
Instead of writing a play that is about the combat, Sherriff chose to focus on the men and their feelings. The most striking part was that he could have chosen any group of soldiers on either side of No Man’s Land and still had the same play, the same feelings and the same message.
I loved the characters, each and every one of them feeling real to me. Complex Stanhope with his inner conflicts and extremely human fears, the dark humorous banter between Osborne and Mason, Hibbert and his terror, the ever changing relationship between Stanhope and the young Raleigh, the enthusiastic, optimistic officer who becomes more and more disillusioned when he begins the truth and sees what happens to men who are fighting.
I loved them all.
This play reminded me of the preface that Wilfred Owen wrote: “This book is not about heroes. English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them.”
And it’s so true.
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.
Maybe I shouldn’t go and see this on stage… the public tears could be embarrassing.
This review is part of my Poppies & Prose feature. You can find out more here.
April 24, 2018
3 stars
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.
This is a play in three acts - totally presented by male characters. They are in the thick of the war, in France, bivouacked in dugouts. Olivier's character, Captain Stanhope, is leading his men in battle. Stanhope is a born leader, he does not instruct, he leads. Everyone is exhausted having been fighting this fight for over 3 years. Relief arrives. One of the relieving soldiers is Raleigh, a younger classmate of Stanhope. A classmate that idolizes Stanhope. The Captain feels the pressure and tries to evade him as much as possible. Then the shelling begins again. Act 3 brings the tragedy.
The book I read was published in 1929 - in excellent shape. That only goes to tell me that this particular book has had few readers. Reminiscent of the early writing of this play, some really good literature goes unknown. The talents of this author, having written many other plays, was sadly extinguished in Nov 1975. Plays, like this one, are now few and far between.
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.
This is a play in three acts - totally presented by male characters. They are in the thick of the war, in France, bivouacked in dugouts. Olivier's character, Captain Stanhope, is leading his men in battle. Stanhope is a born leader, he does not instruct, he leads. Everyone is exhausted having been fighting this fight for over 3 years. Relief arrives. One of the relieving soldiers is Raleigh, a younger classmate of Stanhope. A classmate that idolizes Stanhope. The Captain feels the pressure and tries to evade him as much as possible. Then the shelling begins again. Act 3 brings the tragedy.
The book I read was published in 1929 - in excellent shape. That only goes to tell me that this particular book has had few readers. Reminiscent of the early writing of this play, some really good literature goes unknown. The talents of this author, having written many other plays, was sadly extinguished in Nov 1975. Plays, like this one, are now few and far between.
February 22, 2021
Every now and then I want to read a play; as for this one, I don't know how I 'found it.' It was recently made into a movie, but I hadn't watched it, or known of its existence. I might have discovered it here on Goodreads...
At any rate, very compelling. A story which takes place in the trenches of WWI, or the 'Great War.' The play focuses on a group of officers hunkered down together, but complete with regular meals, servants, a cook, the whole shebang that one would associate with the upper crust, or the young men of the officer class. They're waiting, as are the 'Boche,' or Germans, a mere 70 yards away. Waiting for what? For one side or the other to attack. The trenches are dirty, smelly, ratty, but they manage to take tea, eat bacon, drink (a lot) and just converse like ordinary fellows gathered together down at the local pub.
That's what gets me sometimes, and it did happen in WW2, too, but without the trenches. My father was there, first at Normandy, then in France and Germany. Men hanging around, talking, playing cards, eating rations and being happy when they got some chicken. Boredom, interspersed with nerve-racking, heart-rending chaos. (I watched the TV show, 'Combat' in the 1960's with my dad, a good way to ask questions about the war which he otherwise didn't want to talk about. Yep, he said, we went from village to village, across fields and gardens, through woods and so on, always looking over your shoulder. It was long moments of tedium, routine and boredom, but you never knew when it would come.)
I digress. There's more than just waiting here, though. A new, young officer, Raleigh, has been placed in Company C, run by Stanhope, who Raleigh just happens to know. Stanhope had been dating Raleigh's sister back home and so, when Stanhope is ordered to send Raleigh on a dangerous mission...
There's tension here, sights and sounds of a terrible war, mixed with moments of friendship, camaraderie and the routines of normal English life. Still, everyone is on edge - some more than others - as they await the inevitable.
Love to see this on stage.
Five stars.
At any rate, very compelling. A story which takes place in the trenches of WWI, or the 'Great War.' The play focuses on a group of officers hunkered down together, but complete with regular meals, servants, a cook, the whole shebang that one would associate with the upper crust, or the young men of the officer class. They're waiting, as are the 'Boche,' or Germans, a mere 70 yards away. Waiting for what? For one side or the other to attack. The trenches are dirty, smelly, ratty, but they manage to take tea, eat bacon, drink (a lot) and just converse like ordinary fellows gathered together down at the local pub.
That's what gets me sometimes, and it did happen in WW2, too, but without the trenches. My father was there, first at Normandy, then in France and Germany. Men hanging around, talking, playing cards, eating rations and being happy when they got some chicken. Boredom, interspersed with nerve-racking, heart-rending chaos. (I watched the TV show, 'Combat' in the 1960's with my dad, a good way to ask questions about the war which he otherwise didn't want to talk about. Yep, he said, we went from village to village, across fields and gardens, through woods and so on, always looking over your shoulder. It was long moments of tedium, routine and boredom, but you never knew when it would come.)
I digress. There's more than just waiting here, though. A new, young officer, Raleigh, has been placed in Company C, run by Stanhope, who Raleigh just happens to know. Stanhope had been dating Raleigh's sister back home and so, when Stanhope is ordered to send Raleigh on a dangerous mission...
There's tension here, sights and sounds of a terrible war, mixed with moments of friendship, camaraderie and the routines of normal English life. Still, everyone is on edge - some more than others - as they await the inevitable.
Love to see this on stage.
Five stars.
August 15, 2018
Journey’s End
(1928) is a powerful play and an unusual take on the First World War.
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.
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.
As a WWI work, Journey’s End depicting some key details. Our main character, Stanhope, reveals a man shattered by war in a good portrait of PTSD when it was only called shell shock. We see the British army caught between moral burnout and hard-won professional expertise. The classic sense of commanders being out of touch and inhumane appears during the penultimate raid sequence. Comedy around squalor and bad food recalls veterans' black humor. And some of the plot involves planning for familiar military details, such as launching a raid across no man's land and preparing for a major attack. Act III includes a scene that encapsulates a great deal of class tensions, when Stanhope disciplines Raleigh for violating class expectations (yes, other things are involved, too).
And yet the play differs from many post-1914 works of WWI fiction, in that it is not clearly antiwar. Unlike, say, All Quiet on the Western Front (my reflections) or Wilfred Owen's poems, Journey’s End is about men who, despite everything, insist on fighting. They are committed to the war, even if the issues (German aggression, etc) never really appear. A key plot involves one officer, Hibbert, who seems to be faking an illness in order to get out of serving any longer. Stanhope, massively brutalized by the war, manages to convince Hibbert to stay, even at the point of threatening to kill him. This doesn't appear to be cynical, but heartfelt. It reminds me of Pat Barker's Regeneration (1991), which similarly resists condemning men for deciding to fight and likely die.
It is a minimalist play in some ways. Dialog is brisk and concrete, lacking lyrical passages, brooding monologues, or detailed recaps of off-stage events. As I mentioned before, the setting is closely confined in space. I can imagine how good staging could heighten this.
The play has been filmed several times, and a new version has just appeared. I look forward to it, as well as hoping to see Journey’s End on stage at some point.
(Also posted to Roads)
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.
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.
As a WWI work, Journey’s End depicting some key details. Our main character, Stanhope, reveals a man shattered by war in a good portrait of PTSD when it was only called shell shock. We see the British army caught between moral burnout and hard-won professional expertise. The classic sense of commanders being out of touch and inhumane appears during the penultimate raid sequence. Comedy around squalor and bad food recalls veterans' black humor. And some of the plot involves planning for familiar military details, such as launching a raid across no man's land and preparing for a major attack. Act III includes a scene that encapsulates a great deal of class tensions, when Stanhope disciplines Raleigh for violating class expectations (yes, other things are involved, too).
And yet the play differs from many post-1914 works of WWI fiction, in that it is not clearly antiwar. Unlike, say, All Quiet on the Western Front (my reflections) or Wilfred Owen's poems, Journey’s End is about men who, despite everything, insist on fighting. They are committed to the war, even if the issues (German aggression, etc) never really appear. A key plot involves one officer, Hibbert, who seems to be faking an illness in order to get out of serving any longer. Stanhope, massively brutalized by the war, manages to convince Hibbert to stay, even at the point of threatening to kill him. This doesn't appear to be cynical, but heartfelt. It reminds me of Pat Barker's Regeneration (1991), which similarly resists condemning men for deciding to fight and likely die.
It is a minimalist play in some ways. Dialog is brisk and concrete, lacking lyrical passages, brooding monologues, or detailed recaps of off-stage events. As I mentioned before, the setting is closely confined in space. I can imagine how good staging could heighten this.
The play has been filmed several times, and a new version has just appeared. I look forward to it, as well as hoping to see Journey’s End on stage at some point.
(Also posted to Roads)
March 29, 2017
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.
I will say, however, that the interaction among four officers and their twenty-one-year-old company commander -- set against the doom-laden background of men awaiting the start of a long-rumored German attack (recently confirmed as an incontrovertible fact) -- allows for some confrontational set pieces and some tender interludes boosted by the authenticity of the naturalistic dialogue. These characters could easily have become mere caricatures of certain hackneyed types, but in Sherriff's capable hands they become inherently vulnerable people facing inhuman situations: Hibbert -- a basically good man exhibiting latent cowardly tendencies and ready to use a non-existent case of neuralgia as a passport home; Trotter -- overweight and jolly, and always ready with a humorous (or cheesy) interjection; Osborne -- the level-headed second-in-command, eager to smooth away any interpersonal rough edges and "Uncle" to all; Raleigh -- the eighteen-year-old novice unaccustomed to front line conditions but keen to do his duty; and Stanhope -- the weary young commander who is on the verge of becoming an alcoholic and headed for a complete nervous collapse. Of particular poignancy is the intricate bond that exists between former school acquaintances Stanhope and Raleigh -- now under threat of being severed because of the changed circumstances they find themselves trapped in.
This devastating play may date back to the late twenties, but its anti-aggression sentiments and its powerful spotlight on the futility of war still resonate loudly.
I will say, however, that the interaction among four officers and their twenty-one-year-old company commander -- set against the doom-laden background of men awaiting the start of a long-rumored German attack (recently confirmed as an incontrovertible fact) -- allows for some confrontational set pieces and some tender interludes boosted by the authenticity of the naturalistic dialogue. These characters could easily have become mere caricatures of certain hackneyed types, but in Sherriff's capable hands they become inherently vulnerable people facing inhuman situations: Hibbert -- a basically good man exhibiting latent cowardly tendencies and ready to use a non-existent case of neuralgia as a passport home; Trotter -- overweight and jolly, and always ready with a humorous (or cheesy) interjection; Osborne -- the level-headed second-in-command, eager to smooth away any interpersonal rough edges and "Uncle" to all; Raleigh -- the eighteen-year-old novice unaccustomed to front line conditions but keen to do his duty; and Stanhope -- the weary young commander who is on the verge of becoming an alcoholic and headed for a complete nervous collapse. Of particular poignancy is the intricate bond that exists between former school acquaintances Stanhope and Raleigh -- now under threat of being severed because of the changed circumstances they find themselves trapped in.
This devastating play may date back to the late twenties, but its anti-aggression sentiments and its powerful spotlight on the futility of war still resonate loudly.
August 31, 2018
I read this many years ago, but just noticed they have recently made it into a movie , so I decided to revisit it. it’s short at 92 pages but remains a powerful indictment of war. The play follows a group of British soldiers in their six day stint in the trenches before the coming German offensive, but it is clear from the outset that it isn’t the Germans who are the real enemy. It is war itself and the horror and total futility of it all. As always when I read something like this about any war, I find myself contemplating two major questions. The first is about how on earth that particular war started. I am, of course, not accepting the superficial reasons given in school history books. The second, and equally perplexing question, is one of who actually won. Both of these questions were easy for me to answer all those years ago, but that is no longer the case.
October 9, 2017
Sherriff's play from 1929 suspends us as readers in the realm of the Great War. The play takes place in a dug out in the trenches on the Western Front. Sherriff eloquently brings forward a strange blend of the British class system superimposed on three days of the Great War. The characters are colorful and well depicted so I found myself enjoying the drama through their eyes. It is a play depicting humanity with the help of the unreal edges of the brutality of war colliding with memories, self and a sense of home. I quickly fell for this blend of life and my imagination brought me close to the story. I felt like a fly on the wall as Sherriff's words transported me to the bunker and a few days of the lives of these men. Highly recommended if you like British drama or are drawn to the world of the Great War. It would be worthwhile watching a live performance of the play. I understand that a movie based on the play will be released in 2018.
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August 13, 2016
Having studied this play at school when I was fifteen, I'm now gearing up to teach it to my own students. Before I read it again, I remember being irked by how some of the officers in this WWI play spoke: 'jolly', 'spiffing', 'rather!' and 'topping' are used considerably. But once you get past this (and remember it was written in the twenties), it's a play full of drama and a study of the British "stiff upper lip". Sherriff is a master of the pause and leaves so much unsaid by the soldiers to each other. They rarely talk about the reality of the war they're in (and why would you?), preferring to talk about food, rugby or life at home. It's also interesting to see how else the characters cope with the war: Stanhope drinks, Trotter eats, Raleigh has a rose-tinted view of everything. I look forward to teaching this to my class in September!
August 1, 2018
A modern movie of Journey's End has just been released in the UK and I was recently privileged to view, quite frankly I was astounded by what I saw, so moved by this sober and thoughtful interpretation that I decided to acquire and read the original dramatic play published in 1928 by R C Sherriff who based his novel on his own experiences of life (if we can call it that) in the trenches of Northern France during the spring of 1918.
At the start of world war 1 there appeared to be no shortage of young men following the advice from Lord Kitchener..."Your country needs you" These young romantic conscripts happily boarded troop trains heading for the trenches of St Quentin in northern France in order to fight for king and country. What they encountered was an entrenched position as two opposing sides faced each other across a muddy desolate no man's land. Life in the trenches was abominable. As well as the constant fear of mortars with the resulting shrapnel, soldiers cut to ribbons, muddy conditions giving rise to trench foot and a large expanding rodent problem. If we add to this the overzealous use of mustard gas then a picture reminiscent of a living hell is an apt description.
Given these facts there seemed to be no shortage of volunteers eager to travel through this dystopian landscape where the average life expectancy of a soldier or officer was a mere six weeks. There was a total lack of reality in the minds of commanding officers quite happy to send millions of men to an untimely death cut down by machine gun fire, entangled in barbed wire, or simply blown to pieces by a direct shell hit. If we are to believe numerous accounts the stiff upper lip prevailed and the language of the time; rugger, chap, topping, jolly introduced a surreal quality to this living hell....."A dugout got blown up and came down in the men's tea. They were frightfully annoyed"...."He was the skipper of rugger at Barford, and kept wicket for the eleven. A jolly good bat, too"...
I have been very moved by reading Journey's End and the final images instills a very sombre note. The book explores issues of friendship and comradeship, the desolation of the human mind under extreme conditions, the utter futility of war, and the senseless sacrifice of millions of lives by an inept leadership who was utterly blind to the realities of battle in the blood drenched battlefields of Northern France
At the start of world war 1 there appeared to be no shortage of young men following the advice from Lord Kitchener..."Your country needs you" These young romantic conscripts happily boarded troop trains heading for the trenches of St Quentin in northern France in order to fight for king and country. What they encountered was an entrenched position as two opposing sides faced each other across a muddy desolate no man's land. Life in the trenches was abominable. As well as the constant fear of mortars with the resulting shrapnel, soldiers cut to ribbons, muddy conditions giving rise to trench foot and a large expanding rodent problem. If we add to this the overzealous use of mustard gas then a picture reminiscent of a living hell is an apt description.
Given these facts there seemed to be no shortage of volunteers eager to travel through this dystopian landscape where the average life expectancy of a soldier or officer was a mere six weeks. There was a total lack of reality in the minds of commanding officers quite happy to send millions of men to an untimely death cut down by machine gun fire, entangled in barbed wire, or simply blown to pieces by a direct shell hit. If we are to believe numerous accounts the stiff upper lip prevailed and the language of the time; rugger, chap, topping, jolly introduced a surreal quality to this living hell....."A dugout got blown up and came down in the men's tea. They were frightfully annoyed"...."He was the skipper of rugger at Barford, and kept wicket for the eleven. A jolly good bat, too"...
I have been very moved by reading Journey's End and the final images instills a very sombre note. The book explores issues of friendship and comradeship, the desolation of the human mind under extreme conditions, the utter futility of war, and the senseless sacrifice of millions of lives by an inept leadership who was utterly blind to the realities of battle in the blood drenched battlefields of Northern France
April 10, 2020
Review coming soon. Down with a bit of a flu. Suffice to say that this neat, somewhat too precious little play could have been a lot more.
August 3, 2022
A very moving play, set in the trenches during WW1. R.C. Sherriff served in the trenches and it shows in the writing.
July 20, 2017
Filling a gap in my reading. Kept falling prey to the idea that it was rather clichéd but of course it is those, Blackadder Goes Forth etc, which are guilty of this. Some plays do not make for good reading... this isn't one of them and when combined with the fact that it was based on the author's own experiences it's a very impressive piece of work. I had been intending to read it since becoming aware that "I" in Withnail and I had his haircut for a part in a production of it.
January 31, 2025
i’ve seen the film of this several times, read it in full a few times, and have listened to a couple different audio productions, and journey’s end is always a rather hard-hitting experience. rtc
August 5, 2019
One of my favourite play writes, I tend to stay away from WW1 fictional content as I don't believe that something so horrific can be explained through fiction. WW1 fiction is always either one of two things: extremely unrealistic but fun to read or extremely unrealistic to the point where you are debating wether the Great War actually taught people anything.
Journey's End was different.
After I read this book I wasnt satisfied, I put down the book and thought to myself 'well that's a kick in the teeth'. I talked to people about it, watched the film (it's very good I reccomend it) and looked at reviews such as this one to see if I was getting the point of it or not. I wasn't.
Journey's end is not about heroes, the main characters are every day people in every day people's lives. A PE teacher, a Uni student, the grocer down the street and even your childhood friend. None of which are Heroes, they are humans and this play portrays the human aspect of soldiers in The Great War. The element missing from all WW1 fiction, the human interaction element. This play portrays every day aspects of life within an unimaginable scenario and it does it fantastically.
Journey's End was different.
After I read this book I wasnt satisfied, I put down the book and thought to myself 'well that's a kick in the teeth'. I talked to people about it, watched the film (it's very good I reccomend it) and looked at reviews such as this one to see if I was getting the point of it or not. I wasn't.
Journey's end is not about heroes, the main characters are every day people in every day people's lives. A PE teacher, a Uni student, the grocer down the street and even your childhood friend. None of which are Heroes, they are humans and this play portrays the human aspect of soldiers in The Great War. The element missing from all WW1 fiction, the human interaction element. This play portrays every day aspects of life within an unimaginable scenario and it does it fantastically.
January 7, 2022
Journey’s End by R.C. Sherriff receives 4/5⭐️ from me! This was the first play I read & I surprisingly really liked it! I loved how this book didn’t over-exaggerate the reality of life in the trenches. I loved how incredibly emotional & realistic this book was. I’m not usually a fan of war books, but this book made me want to start venturing out to read more books with this genre! There were so many themes of death, grief & romance throughout this book! I loved how the author portrayed different people’s responses to war, it was truly an eye-opening book. Reading Journey’s End made me dive into deep reflection about war and life. As much as I loved this book, I’m left with a bittersweet feeling after reading this as I simply can’t imagine how the author could have handled such harsh conditions & depressing incidents in the midst of fighting a war for 4 long years. This play has ultimately made me appreciate the sacrifice & dedication of soldiers, and realise how blessed I am right now to not be living during a war time.
This was such a beautiful & important play, I would definitely recommend this fast-paced book to anyone and everyone. 🤺🥷⚔️
This was such a beautiful & important play, I would definitely recommend this fast-paced book to anyone and everyone. 🤺🥷⚔️
January 23, 2025
I was in latin crying bc of this book
May 25, 2023
If Sherriff’s portrait of war no longer shocks, it remains a powerful play with well drawn characters.
March 29, 2025
Journey's End a play from 1928 about a commander and his officers in the British WWI trenches in spring of 1918. It centers on the human experience of war, and the toll it takes on the men fighting. It's very sad and impactful and it made me cry multiple times.
After I read the play, I immediately listened to the audiobook, then found a Youtube recording, and I really hope be able to see it on stage one day.
Alice Winn definitely took inspiration from Journey's End for In Memoriam and it's made me want to reread that book yet again.
After I read the play, I immediately listened to the audiobook, then found a Youtube recording, and I really hope be able to see it on stage one day.
Alice Winn definitely took inspiration from Journey's End for In Memoriam and it's made me want to reread that book yet again.
March 19, 2017
Yet another great play in a series of them. I really have to thank the professors who put together my pre-course reading list because it's exposed me to a world of literature that I can't get enough of. This play was harrowing and raw, like a razor. It nicked me in Act One, cut deeper in Act Two and rubbed in the salt in Act Three. I accidentally spoiled the ending for myself by reading the foreword but my foresight didn't alter my perception of the play at all. I prepared myself from Raleigh's introduction in Act One, yes, but I really let myself feel for him and sympathise with him. That meant his tragic death in the final scene was hard to handle, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. Seeing as the play is set against a World War One backdrop I expected blood, guts and the despicable trench conditions but what I didn't expect were the moments of humour. Mason was a key example of this, with his various chef delicacies. The Officers and their banter with each other offered other moments. Osborne's death was painful too, if only because I saw it coming. No playwright would leave his most sympathetic characters alive in a narrative about the First World War.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 9, 2018
A very poignant play set in the trenches of the First World War. A new young officer, Raleigh, arrives at the front line in 1918, straight from school. He’s managed to get himself posted under the command of Dennis Stanhope, who was a family friend, a few years older, and Raleigh’s hero growing up. But Stanhope is crumbling under the pressure of long years of war, and the last thing he wants is someone whose innocence and inevitable disillusionment will tug at his heart in the way Raleigh does.
The play was first performed in 1928 with a then-unknown Laurence Olivier as Stanhope.
The play was first performed in 1928 with a then-unknown Laurence Olivier as Stanhope.
November 20, 2014
Warning: if you are looking for tales of heroism, sound battle strategies and the underlying theme of how sweet and noble it is to die for one's country, then this is not the book for you.
But if you are looking for the more human side of war: the fears, the tension, the friendships and how much the front can change a man, then you would do well to give this play a try.
But if you are looking for the more human side of war: the fears, the tension, the friendships and how much the front can change a man, then you would do well to give this play a try.
October 31, 2020
Was lucky enough to have caught the last showing of this when it played near me a few years ago.
Much better than the book, but still an important play to read if nothing else.
Much better than the book, but still an important play to read if nothing else.
September 14, 2020
rr2 a satisfying sad play
rr3 still good fight me 😤
rr3 still good fight me 😤
November 16, 2021
PERFECT 😍😍😍
October 13, 2025
It was good. I suppose you could say they had a blast
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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