Theater Review: St. Scholastica presents powerful WWI
drama 'Journey's End'
By Sheryl Jensen, for the News Tribune April 14, 2018
World War I brought new ways for men to maim and kill each other
even more effectively with deadly flamethrowers, portable machine guns and
mustard gas.
Robert Cedric Sherriff was a British officer who fought in WWI
and survived. His experiences led him to write the play "Journey's
End," first performed in 1928, starring 21-year-old Laurence Olivier in
the leading role.
The College of St. Scholastica's production presents a realistic
look at one of the underground "dugouts" that housed WWI officers.
Unlike the mud trenches that the other soldiers had, with little protection
from the elements, the dugouts had a wooden structure with a few creature
comforts, including beds and tables.
Kevin Seime's set is really one of the stars of the show. Built
and furnished to give a feeling of the claustrophobia of living in such small
quarters, every detail is period appropriate. Costumer Sasha Howell rented
WWI-style British officer uniforms from England, giving the show even more of
an authentic vibe.
The play is set over four days leading up to a massive German
attack and effectively shows the odd mix of the men's unbelievable tension and
seemingly endless boredom. The personalities and interaction of a group of
officers, under the leadership of Captain Stanhope (Rob Larson), make up the
story.
Larson is indeed an actor's case study, with all the nuance,
power and charisma needed to play the role of a leader utterly tormented by
what he has seen and endured at the front, and who looks for escape in a
whiskey bottle.
Another of the acting standouts is Theodore Carlson Webster as
Raleigh, a young officer new to the unit who had been friends with Stanhope
back home, and who had held the older Stanhope up as a role model and hero.
The inexperienced Raleigh is told he will be leading a group of
men into battle shortly after his arrival. Webster plays the fresh-faced youth
with a mix of enthusiasm and terror and is a sharp contrast to the war-weary
Stanhope.
Comic relief comes from Conor J. Reindl, as the ever-confused
and eager-to-please cook, and Adam M. Anderson as Trotter, the perpetually
hungry officer who uses food as his relief mechanism.
Director Kelly K. Mullan effectively helps her actors to show
character development in particularly the first half of the show, as we watch
how each comes to terms with the effect of imminent combat and the near
certainty of their deaths.
Authentic period music is played pre-show and at intermission.
One of the songs that was played became a WWI anti-war anthem for mothers
waiting back home. It includes the lyric:
"I
didn't raise my boy to be a soldier
I
brought him up to be my pride and joy.
Who
dares to place a musket on his shoulder,
To
shoot some other mother's darling boy?"
The play gives one pause to think about all those mothers whose
sons and daughters still go off to war, some of whom will meet their ultimate
journey's end.
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