New Britain herald., 1929-11-01
Theater Review


 By arrangement with Maurice Browne
 Presents
 JOURNEYS END" A Play in Three Acts
 By R. C. Sheriff
 Directed by Stanley Bell Cast of Characters)
 Captain Hardy ..,.... Francis Compton Lieut.. Osborne Henry Stephenson Private Mason .......,.... Dan Booker End. Lieut. Raleigh ., Frederick Catling Captain Stanhope ........ Richard Bird End. Lieut. Trotter ... Norman Pierce 2nd. Lieut.. Hilbert :. c. P. Huntley. Jr. Company Sergeant Major ............
 ...,................ Arthur Stenning The Colonel .....,...... George Thorpe German Soldier ............ Ben kranz Broughton ....-....... William Watson Private ........-.,.... Vernon Downing
 (By Herald Revewer)
 British playwrights, it seems, manufacture less noise and whoop hurrah when plotting and executing a war drama than their American contemporaries. Audiences in these United States have established war play standards on the basis of their experiences with the boisterous and profane What Price Glory" and the equally as boisterous and slangy The Big Parade" The English ex- treme is Journeys End" which is playing at Parsons theater, Hart ford, relief from the sickly sweet love stories with happy endings
 R. c. Sheriff, the creator of this r,,inf ir1 broad brush in the drawing os his characters and has supp1 essed any desire for action which he might have had in favor of chronicle revealing the emotions an ] reactions to warfare of several individuals cooped up in a dugout on the fringe of No Mans Land. There are no mock heroics, no spirited appeal to patriotism and none of th4 dramatic rubbish usually found in a play based on war. How far removed from conventional conceptions of war dramas It is, can be judged by the fact that there isn't single cuss word in the dialogue from be- ginning to end. Nobody is even a blighter.
 Captain Stanhope, commander of company which has dug in seventy yards away from the Boche front line, has become embittered by three years of life in the mud. He finds escape from his emotions by too frequent recourse to whiskey. By coincidence. Second Lieutenant Ral- eigh, who had worshipped Stanhope when the latter starred on their schools cricket and football teams, is assigned to the company. He ar rived bubbling over with enthusiasm at being attached to Captain Stan hopes official family Stanhope, fearing that the folks back home especially Raleigh's sister-might hear of his addiction to liquor, be- comes more embittered at the new situation. He bullies the lad and makes himself disagreeable in every manner possible. But Raleigh is a sporting chap and his letters back home contain nothing but encomi- ums for his superior. Not until Ral- eight at the point of going west after a raid, does Stanhope reveal his true feelings toward him.
 Journeys End" cannot be said to have a plot in the accepted sense. It is simply picture of what occurs during the six day period up where ho rha1 u,jro fo1 the place of pleasant English land Scapes.
 Richard Bird gives a sincere in depreciation of the character of Captain Stanhope and Frederick Cat ling shows fine understanding of what Raleigh would be and does under the circumstances. Henry Stephenson reveals sympathetic ap- preciation of the role of Lieut.. Os- borne, former English school master. Norman Pierce contributes the levity of the play as Second Lieutenant Trotter whose sole thought seems to be of food. Dan Booker should be included in this hall of fame for his handling of the character of Private Mason, cook for the group. c. P. Huntley, Jr., is cast as Second Lieuta anant Hilbert, who goes craven under. the stress of trench life.
 Journeys End will remain at Parsons for the rest of the week with matinee tomorrow It Is pre- scented by 8 company gathered for appearances in the east. The ori- ginal New York company is now in it's thirty-third week at the Miller the1ter