Journey’s End, written by R. C. Sherriff and about the First World War is a well-established play within the dramatic literature of twentieth century. This modern classic offers the audience an insightful glimpse into the realities of frontline battle experienced by soldiers as young as eighteen.
Fletcher Players as the resident student company in Cambridge’s Corpus Playroom take on the challenge to make this script relevant to contemporary audience. Throughout their performance, it becomes quite clear that they make a success of this attempt. It might be partially because armed conflict is nothing new to anyone, but also because the writing proves yet again that it endures the length of time.
As I sit down on at the back of the auditorium, which is an extension of the stage, the cosy atmosphere envelops me straight away. A mixed audience made up of students and older looking theatre-goers creates a buzzy anticipation. At the same time, the detailed set and the existing lighting in the studio form an intermediary space to prepare for the transition into the performance itself. The jolly marching band music gently playing in the background to the pre-set adds on to the warm and snug studio atmosphere. An amalgamation of all these conjures up feelings of safety and cheerfulness – everything warfare is not and can never be!
Here lies the strength of the play and perhaps its enduring power: displaying the contrast between glory and gore, the tensions within the human psyche when it comes to duty and self-preservation. And of course, the lengths human-beings go to protect themselves and their loved ones. This is why, watching the remnants of such a bygone era from such a youthful and energetic company is so incredibly refreshing. The outdated modes of speech together with their colloquialisms and euphemisms sound so very unique when uttered by these burgeoning performers. And the resulting effect is utterly delightful. The variety of accents adopted by the company whether intentionally or not adds a real sense of truth to the delivery of the dialogue. After all, who can argue with the fact that there were a lot of young men from different parts of the country in the trenches of ‘The Great War’. It is almost irrelevant that these young men were not officers because for the audience of today to feel the horrors of the reality experienced by them becomes all too real when we see these young performers in front of us.
The impressive ensemble work offered by the company is only enhanced by the colourful characterisation of Mason. The gentle out-of-placeness of this character could so easily become two dimensional in order to provide some light relief in certain moments. However, Thomas Gladstone manages to avoid this by bringing real warmth and detailed moments of reflection to the stage action. Osborne is a tough one to deliver because of the age difference with the other characters and how he is referred to as ‘uncle’ due to this. Max Ferrara finds a befitting upper-class accent to give an old-fashioned feel to this character and complements his acting with subtle postures and gestures that make it quite believable in spite of not using any aging make-up. Another tricky character to portray is, of course, Stanhope, who carries the whole weight of an officer’s responsibility on his shoulders. Leo Morad approaches the character’s attitude while meeting the demands of his environment in a believable fashion. Perhaps a touch of further variation in moments of anger and despair to take the focus away from his feeling of breathless might not go amiss. Likewise, the constant need to perform the act of smoking by non-smokers might not be as necessary anymore since we see actual cigarettes less and less in society.
During the interval, the oom-pah-pah of ‘Colonel Bogey Man’ keeps me in my seat, and I enjoy looking at individual set pieces creating quite a truthful feel overall. This is also true for the sound effects and their harrowing rawness, which are handled quite well with different sound levels throughout the performance. The staging of the director Dave Chataway allows this piece to shine by varying the individual tempo of each scene. At the end, someone in the audience is even crying next to me. To watch human beings reduced to being so disposable is certainly pitiful to witness, especially when represented in such a convincing way.
Photos credit: Maya Killig-Grim
