Journey's End

A few years ago I went to see 'An Inspector Calls', J.B. Priestley's classic play. Tonight I went to the same venue, the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, to see a performance of R. C. Sherriff's 'Journey's End'. The former left me cold, bored and unimpressed and my immediate impression of the latter is somewhat similar. I may just be stupid or heartless, or I may be difficult to please. I like to think that it would help if I could empathise with at least one of the characters. Lt. Osborne, the former schoolmaster (played by Simon Dutton), was probably the only one I felt slightly sorry for when he realised he was going to his death, sent by the (much younger) man he admired and respected, presumably the man he expected would go in his place. 2nd Lt. Trotter, the man promoted from the ranks (played by Christian Patterson), provided mild comic relief, but neither of these characters were developed beyond the bare bones of two men who, like many in the Great War, were somewhere they shouldn't have been. This was a missed opportunity. Their stories had to have been more interesting than that of the angry young man, Captain Stanhope (played by Nick Hendrix, who may have been cast because of his inexperience, not in spite of it), who would drink himself into oblivion just to get through every day. Stanhope arrived at the front at eighteen, and had been there for three years. He had obviously been changed, irrevocably, by the war. His relationship with the new arrival, and old family friend, 2nd Lt. Raleigh (Graham Butler) was only hinted at, and I felt that there was no real, tangible animosity towards, or heartfelt sympathy with, 2nd Lt. Hibbert. It was like Stanhope was going through the motions to hide his own fear and inadequacies. Understandable, I suppose. Stanhope appeared plain selfish, and had he convinced the Colonel to let him lead the raiding party, it wouldn't have been to spare Osborne but to have someone else end his own life, as he didn't have the courage to shoot himself. That's my take on it, anyway. The real star of the show was the Sound Designer (Gregory Clarke) who deafened the entire audience at the end with his interpretation of the much anticipated German attack.