JOURNEY'S END. To 3 May.

Colchester.

JOURNEY’S END
by R C Sherriff.

Mercury Theatre To 3 May 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu 2pm & 3 May 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr 40min One interval.

TICKETS: 01206 573948
www.mercurytheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 April.

Life and death in the trenches presented with conviction.
For some two-and-a-half hours Tony Casement’s production locks us (with just one interval) into the First World War’s Western Front where a group of officers show their mettle and plan an exploratory raid while preparing for a German attack. Chief among these men is Stanhope, nerves glued together with whisky, a Captain in his early twenties, a leader who has to bring one of his fellow-officers through the depths of fear while also facing the arrival of someone from his old school.

Raleigh idolised the older Stanhope back home, and his sister is “waiting for” the Captain’s return. Now, Stanhope fears news of his wrought condition at the Front reaching home and spoiling his image with the sister. It leads to his only breach of officer code, as he reads the younger man’s letter.

While Hansjorg Schmidt’s lighting emphasises the restricted illumination in the candle-lit dugout, and between scenes shows the vast bleakness of the battleground beyond as time wearily passes, Sara Perks’ set with its black surrounds, creates a cramped, distant area where men live and work together.

Casement makes hardly any overt additions – the officers’ cook spits in the tea he takes to the frightened superior, then pointedly follows him into the trench with a bayoneted rifle. Yet his production presents R C Sherriff’s characters with innate truth. Coming a decade after the War it depicts, Journey’s End reserves its irony for the title; “Journey’s end in lovers’ meeting/Every wise man’s son does know,” the Twelfth Night lyric says. Not here, given the massive unwisdom of war.

This generally well-played revival is distinguished by the two scenes, near start and end respectively, where fresh-faced new boy Raleigh talks with the ever-reliable older officer Osborne. Roger Delves-Broughton’s Osborne has an ease that never ignores the underlying tension and need for tact, while David Oakes gives Raleigh the enthusiasm of innocence.

Later, they talk before leading a dangerous raiding-party, the attempt at naturalness and unconcern made artificial by tension. Such contrast works, too, between the opening scene’s busy humour and the final, silent image of death in this strong revival.

Hardy: Tim Freeman.
Osborne: Roger Delves-Broughton.
Mason: Michael Thomson.
Raleigh: David Oakes.
Stanhope: Gus Gallagher.
Trotter: Tim Treslove.
Hibbert: Stephen Cavanagh.
Sergeant-Major: Victor Gardener.
Colonel: Adrian Stokes.
Young German: Julius Metson Scott.

Director: Tony Casement.
Designer: Sara Perks.
Lighting: Hansjorg Schmidt.
Sound: Marcus Christensen.
Dialect coach: Charmian Hoare.
Fight director: Philip D’Orleans.

2008-04-28 10:41:36