Audience Comments

JOURNEYS END by R.C. Sherriff

Some unsolicited audience reactions to Theatre Reviva!’s production, August 2018

 

“Leatherhead should be extremely proud to have such local talent on its doorstep”

“This was an extremely moving production and performance from a highly talented company” Prof. A. Bowman [Glasgow University]

“Saw it this evening. Just to congratulate you on an excellent production.” Graham F

“An outstanding job with the direction and casting.” Phil S

“What a show – I am blown away!” AP

“The play was wonderful; and the soundscape was perfect.” Kate H

“A resounding success!” Louisa B

“The play was awesome. VERY well done… all extremely moving.” MM

“Journey’s End was fab. So wonderful to see it come to life. Brilliantly acted, lovely touches, fabulous set… you had my friend in tears.” MG

“OMG! You should all be very proud xx.” Nicky O

“Very well done last night! The play was excellent…kept the audience gripped all night” CP

“Huge congratulations to director and colonel. What a great play with great cast.” KUDOS! CH [Cath Humphrys]

“Super performance! Well done the whole cast. My attention was held for the entire play. Loved it! Congratulations.” VW [Val Woolford ]

“Absolutely amazing performance. Blown away by the ending. So moving and poignant. Wow!!” AP [Ann Pickering]

“The play was awesome. VERY well done. All extremely moving. You should be in the West end.“ MM

“I would just like to say how much Caroline and I enjoyed Journey’s End last night. I have seen the play performed several times but this really was the best and most atmospheric production I have seen. Congratulations to you and your cast. The transfer of the curtain call to the parade in the foyer was a great idea.” PT (Paul Tweddle.)

“What an incredible show. Thank you for this. True West End quality in a regional theatre.
A show to remember… this should run and run” Mrs L B [L Beckman]

“A great performance. Thank you for a memorable evening.” LL [Louise Laudy]

“We left the theatre so stunned by what we had witnessed, my wife and I hardly spoke on the drive home. Magnificently performed by the cast, tragic, poignant and heart-rending were just some of the words that eventually came to mind. I’d recommend it to anyone…” GA [Geoffrey Austin]

“I just wanted to say how moved Paul and I were by the evening. Journey’s End is a favourite play of mine – my maternal grandfather lost a leg at Passchendaele so the sorrow and waste of the First World War have always resonated in our family. We found your production so powerful and beautiful. Thank you for a wonderful experience.” EW

(various) Anon:
“My partner and I thoroughly appreciated the show on Sunday night. It looked beautiful and the actors were all superb, and the unique curtain call was very effective. Well done to the entire team!”

“Great show tonight. Beautifully acted…”

“We had a great time with “Journey’s End” last night. Come & see it …”

“Very impressed” ,”Brilliant” ,”Beautifully directed” ,”I was gripped all night” ,”So professional”, “Excellent. Derrick and I thoroughly enjoyed it”, “A pulsating drama …” (various) Anon

Journey’s End – Leatherhead Parish Magazine

“A major emotional experience” was how one parishioner described Graham Pountney’s splendid production of R.C. Sheriff’s Journey’s End.
“The tensions and conflicting emotions during four days in a dugout in 1918 came across with forceful clarity in this anti-war classic.
We saw it in the Performing Arts Theatre of St. John’s School, before it transferred to the Leatherhead Theatre, and the close proximity of the action made it even more moving and dramatic. The characters were all excellently played, with complete credibility, and one shared their helplessness in face of the pointless loss of life.”

Proceeds from the play go to support the Royal British Legion, SSAFA and Combat Stress, and moving contributions from these charities reminded us that the armed services have still to cope with the traumas and suffering that war brings. The events R.C. Sherriff depicts came even closer to home when we learnt that he lived in Esher and served in the East Surrey Regiment in the Ypres Salient until 1917 when he was wounded in the battle of Passchendaele. AW

Last chance to see “Journey’s End”

Journey's End performance

The performances have been met with some extra-ordinary reactions….”Wonderful – Brilliant – Emotional”. If you do just one thing this weekend: see this! Read what people are saying:

“What an incredible show. Thank you for this, West End quality in regional theatre. A show to remember… only 2 more performances, this should run and run”

Yes, it’s true – last chance to see “Journey’s End” TODAY – Sunday 5th August at 3pm and 7.30pm.

Thursday’s performance photos

Photos from Thursday’s performance.
Comments:
“Beautifully acted and directed.”
“The play was excellent, kept the audience gripped all night…”

About Journey’s End

Five British officers are preparing apprehensively for the upcoming attack. Raleigh, an eighteen-year-old officer fresh out of English public school, joins the company of his friend and cricketing hero Captain Stanhope and finds him dramatically changed. Osborne, the 2nd in command, is a middle-aged public school teacher and father figure. Trotter, who has worked his way up through the ranks, has a drily humorous response to the officers’ situation, whilst Hibbert reveals a ‘less than British’ attitude to their predicament.

Hailed by George Bernard Shaw as a ‘useful corrective to the romantic conception of war’, the play had its first performance in December 1928, with Laurence Olivier as Stanhope and was an instant West End success. R. C. Sherriff drew on his own experiences as a Captain serving in the East Surrey Regiment in the trenches, and it is this first-hand authenticity, as well as its humanity, that has kept the play a triumph for a full ninety years and a remarkable anti-war classic.

This production commemorates the centenary of the end of hostilities in the Great War and recalls the sacrifices of those who never returned, lest we forget.

Journey’s End by RC Sherriff

About RC Sherriff

R. C. Sherriff was born on 6th June 1896 in Hampton Wick. He was educated at Kingston Grammar School from 1905-1913 and considered going up to Oxford but decided he could not afford to, and instead began employment at the Sun Insurance Company, where his father and grandfather had worked.

Sherriff’s war

At the outbreak of war, Sherriff volunteered to be an officer, but was turned down and returned to his job. He tried again in November 1915 and was successful with the Artists Rifles Regiment (in which Wilfred Owen also served), and in September 1916 was commissioned into The East Surrey Regiment. He finally arrived on the Western Front to join the 9th Battalion in early October, serving in the Vimy Ridge and Messines areas.

On 27th January 1917, he was wounded at Bracquemont, and spent two weeks at an Ambulance Dressing Station before returning to his unit. Later that year he moved up to the Passchendaele area to take part in the initial offensive, which took place on terrain resembling a sea of glutinous mud, due to the wettest summer on record. He later recalled the events of the 31st July 1917 in his book ‘No Leading Lady’.

At dawn, he assembled his platoon and went through the usual inspection, noting how grey, drawn and haggard his men looked, twisting their shoulders and torsos in an attempt to get some respite from the lice that filled their filthy clothing. Looking out over the barren landscape ahead, he briefly considered the benefits of being wounded in the attack before reality kicked in to tell him that there would be no way off the battlefield in such foul conditions.

As he advanced with his men on August 2nd, a shell exploded on a concrete bunker beside him with a deafening and stupefying crash, showering him with debris. He put his hand to his bloody face and as he could feel nothing, concluded much of his face must have been blown away. It was indeed the wound he had thought about, and his time in battle was over.

After a spell at the Casualty Clearing Station at Abele, he was taken back to 14 Base Hospital at Wimereux where no less than 52 pieces of concrete were extracted from his body. Transferred to a hospital at Netley in Hampshire, he remained there until November when he was posted to a Home Service battalion of the regiment where he served until discharged in March 1919. At a time when the life expectancy of a junior officer was six weeks, Sherriff had lasted ten months and had participated in some of the heaviest fighting in key areas of the Western Front. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry.

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Come and see Journey’s End

Journey's End

This is our biggest production yet, and we’re creating an amazing ambience in the Theatre with music of the era, battle sounds, visits from ‘The Trench Experience’, Reservists, Veterans, Combat Stress, SSAFA and the Royal British Legion …. You’ll have to experience it to believe it!

Not to be missed!

Thursday August 2nd to Sunday August 5th 2018
in Leatherhead

This play was born out of letters from the front line in 1918, opened in the West End in 1928 and is now being brilliantly revived in the centenary year 2018, catch it now! It’s a lifetime experience.
An extraordinary, gripping production of a great anti-war classic, full of beautifully observed humanity: Set in the trenches during the First World War, this story plays out in a dugout over four days, from 18th March to 21st March 1918, during the run-up to the last major German offensive of the War.