Sherriff - Journeys End

PENGUIN BOOKS Journey's End R. C. Sherriff was born in 1896 and educated at Kingston Grammar School and New College, Oxford. He entered his father's insurance business, but shortly after, on the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the army, and served as a captain in the East Surrey regiment. He rejoined the business in 1918 and spent ten years as a claims adjuster. It was an interest in amateur theatricals which led him to try his hand at writing.

After rejection by many theatre managements, Journey's End was given a single Sunday evening performance by the Incorporated Stage Society in December 1928. Laurence Olivier played Stanhope on that occasion. In 1929, Shaw was instrumental in having Journey's End produced at the Savoy Theatre. The play's enormous success, in both Europe and America, enabled Sherriff to become a full-time writer. Among his other plays are Badger's Green (1930); Windfall (1933); St Helena (1935), a play about Napoleon, written in collaboration with Jeanne de Casalis; Miss Mabel (1948); Home at Seven (1950); The White Carnation (1953); and The Long Sunset (1955), a vivid picture of the last days of Roman civilization in Britain. He wrote screen plays for many films including The Invisible Man (1933), Goodbye Mr Chips (1933), The Four Feathers (1938), Lady Hamilton (1941), Odd Man Out (1945), Quartet (1948), No Highway (1950) and The Dam Busters (1955).

He also published an autobiography, No Leading Lady (1968). R. C. Sheriff died in November 1975. PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 Penguin Books India (P) Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Roseban k2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England www.penguin.com First published 1929 Published in Penguin Books 1983 Reprinted in Penguin Classics 2000 Copyright 1929 by R. C.

Sheriff All rights reserved All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and applications for permission to perform it must be made by amateur companies to Samuel French Ltd, 52 Fitzroy Street, London W1P 6JR, and professional companies to Curtis Brown, 1 Craven Hill, London W2 3EP Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser 978-0-14-191276-9

STANHOPE, commanding an infantry company

OSBORNE TROTTER HIBBERT RALEIGH

officers of the company

THE COLONEL THE COMPANY SERGEANT-MAJOR MASON, the officers' cook HARDY, an officer of another regiment A YOUNG GERMAN SOLDIER TWO PRIVATE SOLDIERS OF THE COMPANY Journey's End was first produced by the Incorporated Stage Society at the Apollo Theatre, London, on 9 December 1928, with the following cast:

STANHOPE	Laurence Olivier
OSBORNE	George Zucco
TROTTER	Melville Cooper
HIBBERT	Robert Speaight
RALEIGH	Maurice Evans
THE COLONEL	H. G. Stoker
THE COMPANY SERGEANT-MAJOR	Percy Walsh
MASON	Alexander Field
HARDY	David Home
GERMAN SOLDIER	Geoffrey Wincott

Produced by JAMES WHALE Subsequently the play was presented by Maurice Browne at the Savoy Theatre on 21 January 1929. A dugout in the British trenches before St Quentin. A few rough steps lead into the trench above, through a low doorway. A wooden frame, covered with wire netting, stands against the left wall and serves the double purpose of a bed and a seat for the table. A wooden bench against the back wall makes another seat, and two boxes serve for the other sides. Another wire-covered bed is fixed in the right corner beyond the doorway. Gloomy tunnels lead out of the dugout to left and right. Except for the table, beds, and seats, there is no furniture save the bottles holding the candles, and a few tattered magazine pictures pinned to the wall of girls in flimsy costumes. The earth walls deaden the sounds of war, making them faint and far away, although the front line is only fifty yards ahead. The flames of the candles that burn day and night are steady in the still, damp air. Next page