Journey's End

Journey’s End is a 1928 drama, the seventh of English playwright R. C. Sherriff.

Set in the trenches near Saint-Quentin, Aisne, in 1918 towards the end of the First World War, Journey’s End gives a glimpse into the experiences of the officers of a British Army infantry company in World War I. The entire story plays out in the officers’ dugout over four days from 18 March 1918 to 21 March 1918, during the run-up to the real-life events of Operation Michael.

Sherriff considered calling it “Suspense” and “Waiting”, but eventually found a title in the closing line of a chapter of an unidentified book: “It was late in the evening when we came at last to our journey’s end.”

• At the end of the show, before the dugout set partially collapses, there were one or two maroon explosions. These were quite nasty explosives that were fired in an old water tank. As they were expensive we couldn’t waste them during rehearsals so as Stage Manager I would shout ‘MAROON’ to signify the explosion. For several years afterwards when I met cast and crew the opening of the conversation was for someone to shout “maroon”. — John Schwiller 2021-12-11
• The show needed a number of dummy rifles and Hugh Simon had arranged to hire these from Baptys, a well known armourer to film, tv and theatre, based on Harrow Rd, London. Hugh and I drove to London in my decrepit Daf to pick up these fake guns. I recall driving up and down Harrow Road for over an hour looking for Baptys, which due to their line of business was not well advertised. After we found them, we were taken to the back of their yard past armourers firing very loud automatic weapons into sandbags. Driving back to Nottingham with a boot full of even dummy guns seemed a slightly dangerous thing to do given the situation in Ireland. — John Schwiller 2021-12-11
• As Stage Manager one of my favourite tasks each night was to make up a half pint glass of wet fuller’s earth clay and flick it at Matthew Bannister’s face before one of his entrances having just escaped a mortar explosion. — John Schwiller 2021-12-11
• This must have been the last performance before R.C. Sheriff died. We closed on Sat (or was it Fri?) and he died on Sun or Mon — John Schwiller 2021-01-09
• I remember this show so well. I designed the set to break through the fourth wall and we constructed timber beams in front of the proscenium. Mike Wolfe lit the show with Patt 23s in the beams. The only thing I wasn’t happy with was the hurried painted sandbags at the top of the steps. Also that the wonderful John Turner (Benfield) couldn’t make the shoot of all the cast and crew. At the end of the show the dugout had to collapse and we used a hinged ceiling with fullers earth. We could only afford a maroon or two for each night so for rehearsals I shouted “maroon”. This became a running gag, for example when I ran into Nick Farrell on Shaftesbury Avenue. — John Schwiller 2025-08-01
• The boys in Journey's End all went together to the barbers and had their long hair chopped off so they looked like authentic WW1 soldiers. — Terri Norris 2019-03-28
• As Private Evans, I served a meal, which was actually consumed, but to judge from their expressions were rather disgusting! — Stephen Hopker 2020-03-25
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