Journey’s End to be Staged in Ypres

With World War One enduring one of its bloodiest phases 100 years ago, there has never been a better time for artists, directors, historians and writers to explore the tragic conflict. While we at Casemate are always looking to explore the First World War with new books, we’re always delighted to hear how other companies are tackling the subject. When we heard about MESH Theatre Co performing the classic Journey’s End play in Ypres itself, we felt we had to get in touch to ask them more about it.

We spoke to the director Sally Woodcock to learn more about the production.

 

 

Firstly, can you briefly explain what Mesh will be doing this Autumn, where and why?

 

MESH  Theatre Co brings classic WW1 drama JOURNEY’S END to the Battlefields this Autumn: live in an old ammunition dump (Kruitmagazijn) in a Flanders Field yards from Ypres railway station from 10th October to 12th November.

The production marks 100 years since the play’s author R C Sherriff fought in the 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele).

Director Sally Woodcock said: “Journey’s End had a major impact on me when I first saw it in the West End in 2004: I had a layman’s understanding of the horrors of the so-called Great War – I’d studied it at school, read Birdsong, seen Blackadder – but something about this play provoked a call to action. Soon afterwards I got the licence to produce it for a previous theatre company. We were unable to pull it off at that time but it was always unfinished business for me.

So when, a year ago, I found myself in a Secondary school English lesson, where half the class was away on a trip to the Battlefields, I had a ‘ding’ moment: this play needed to go to the Battlefields –  and it needed to go now.

I jumped on a ferry and did a crash-course in WW1 tourism. It was of course a profound experience: no one ever forgets that first cemetery, that first memorial etched with column upon row of names, the Last Post at Meningate, John McCrae’s poem engraved on a dressing station. But, as a theatre-maker, that vital ‘breathing’ component was missing. When I learnt that Sherriff had himself fought there 99 years ago it became a matter of urgency to bring his brilliant memorial ‘home’ to speak for itself.

 

 

What is it about Journey’s End that makes you think people should go and see it?

 

Journey’s End is unique in being the only WW1 play written by a  WW1 soldier.  This gives it an unmistakeable authenticity. Sherriff said, when he sat down to write it ten years after the war: “I did not need to create these characters, they walked out fully-formed on to the page.”

In a sense it is peopled by ‘stock’ characters: war-weary leader Stanhope,  wide-eyed new recruit Raleigh, plump and cheery Trotter, avunclular Osborne, ruthless Colonel, droll ‘subaltern’ Mason – and so on. Richard Curtis and the Blackadder team borrowed shamelessly from Journey’s End: a popular fixture in boys school drama departments.

Yet, at the same time Sherriff manages to imbue these ‘types’ – who resonate across time and class and borders –  with complexity, subtlety and deep humanity.

All of life is here. Which makes the story –  superbly structured over three days leading to a catastrophic Front Line attack – so utterly devastating. This band of ordinary men (albeit officer class by accident of birth – or numbers) in this grim dugout in this most extreme situation display the full gamut of coping mechanisms and human emotion. They pull on reserves of leadership, loyalty, bravery, love – woven with, but trumping, cowardice, bullying, naivity, misogyny, repulsion – to reveal their best and strongest selves.

And all for nothing.

When it first showed in 1928 in London a critic declared it “less a play than a memorial to the dead.”

It was intended as a subversive one-night-only performance with a young Laurence Olivier in the lead. But, in breaking a ten year silence about the horrorific reality of what went on in the trenches, it quickly went viral in over 18 languages with 30 productions playing simultaneously worldwide by the mid 1930s. It has received its fair share of criticism over the years – it is not poetic or lyrical, it is pointedly anti-war (though Sherriff maintained he never set out to make it such). But it is also widely celebrated, esteemed for its accuracy of detail and has been rarely out of production since its debut, from major West End revivals to school plays and everything in between. It has an extraordinary pedigree.

But the real reason to see this seminal ‘living’ document in this all-important year in this extraordinary place is perhaps to understand a little better our own history-in-the-making. To see and hear a testimony – from someone who was there – to the reckless waste of men like you and me when collective insanity gains momentum. To reflect on the lessons of history. Maybe to learn something. And, of course, to remember them.

 

Do you feel any extra pressure as director when making theatre about such a tragic subject as WWI?

Yes. Absolutely. This play must be handled with care for obvious reasons. But it’s a team effort and I see my role less as director than enabler. We have a great script, talented designer, unique venue and brilliant actors  all chosen not just for their talent but for being company men, and all already very knowledgeable about WW1. Five of the ten were in Journey’s End in an excellent UK touring production for Immersion Theatre last year – which I saw, coincidentally, the evening before I went on my  Battlefields ‘recce’. (Serendipitous in the extreme). I contacted Immersion’s designer,  Tim Peacock, whose work I admired, who told the cast what was happening in Ypres, who in turn wrote to me, asking to do it again – such was their attachment to the play and desire to be involved in this project. Consequently our team has been as solid as a rock from day one. No place for primadonnas here: we are all here to tell this important, tragic story to the best of our abilities. I’m just there to put everything in a room and make suggestions where needed.

This takes the fear away for me: collectively our job is to excavate this story  and focus single-mindedly on finding its truth.

 

 

With 2017 being right in the middle of the WWI Centenary, have you noticed a greater public interest in what happened on the Western Front?

 

In the UK there was a huge wave of interest at the beginning of the Centenary, and then again last year for the 1st Battle of the Somme, with the extraordinary BBC film. Passchendaele has brought with it a new wave of interest, with Royalty attending the various ceremonies at the end of July, and extensive coverage in the press. And some excellent books published on the subject, including Roland Wales biography of Sherriff, which have brought their own publicity.

There is also a major film of Journey’s End coming out in Autumn, while we are in Ypres, which is excellent timing – pure accident – which will no doubt boost interest enormously, as Dunkirk is doing currently with WW2.  Our project dovetails beautifully with the film: a chance to see it not only on the big screen but ‘live’ in a bunker on the very ground where it happened.  The timing couldn’t be better.

 

 

 

How have the various WWI centenary organisations helped you with the play?

 

We’ve been so lucky. From the minute we first set foot in Ypres – or Ieper as the Flemish call it – we’ve had such support. Everyone has believed in the project: once you explain what it is and why it has to happen, it is something of a ‘no-brainer’. Flanders Field Museum and Cultural Center in Ieper went out of their way to find us a suitable venue,  set up an online box office, to generate publicity and form an educational collaboration with our ‘Join the Dots’  pack for schools, linking quotes from the play with key exhibits from the musuem.

In the UK we’ve had enthusiastic support from the Government Department for Culture and Sport who connected us with the UCL / Imperial War Museum Centenary Partnership.

The Commonwealth War Grave Commission have been fantastic – we are going down to their archives with our actors to talk to their historians in August, and hopefully taking part in a big event in September with them. The British Legion are enthusiastic, with different groups coming along to see it. And the Last Post Association in Ypres have also been great enablers.

In France we were invited to a major Centenary ceremony at the Chemin de Dames on Easter Sunday with Francois Mitterand in attendance, where we met many key people involved in Centenary events .

Consequently we are taking it to Thiepval in the Somme next Autumn, showing in Thiepval Church, yards from the biggest and most shocking of all WW1 memorials to the missing – in the sheer scale of names. This will be very special: given that Journey’s End is set in the Somme. We will also be back in Ypres at the Kruitmagazijn in October and November to bring the Centenary to a close.

 

I expect you will get many school tours to see your play. What do you hope they will leave the play having learnt?

 

We really hope so: it’s a brilliant play for young people because they will have brothers and sisters the same age as Raleigh and Stanhope when he joined up – same age as the sixth formers in their schools. The only difference being Raleigh and Stanhope happened to be unlucky enough to be a teenagers when insane governments were looking for canon fodder.

Personally I am anti-war in almost all circumstances. Meeting fire with fire rarely – if ever – achieves any positive outcome as far as I can see. It is all too often a ‘quick fix’ solution mistakenly dressed up as a show of strength: a desire to be seen to be taking decisive action, a display of intolerance towards intolerance. But it is a vicious cycle which does not end well, if it ends at all.

So personally I would like young people to take away the simple message that war in general is a very bad idea – and this war in particular was an utter atrocitiy.

Teenage boys in particular (though not exclusively) can be developmentally inclined to be impressed by glamorous ideals of war, as Raleigh was. I hope this play makes them think about that a bit more carefully.

I know we need our armed forces, and recruitment is in crisis, so this may be an unpopular view. But I’m prepared to risk unpopularity because it’s a very strongly held view.

Both my grandfathers fought in the First World War and were lucky enough to survive. But both bore horrific scars – mental and physical – for the rest of their lives. Did they think it was worth it? I don’t know.

 

How do people buy tickets for Journey’s End?

 

Go to www.meshtheatre.com/tickets.

Tickets are 15 Euros with special offers for students and groups.

 

If you’re in the area, or doing a battlefield tour between 10th October and 12th November, we urge you to go. There might never be a better opportunity to see such a production so close to where the battles actually happened.

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