JOURNEY’S END

Octagon Theatre, Bolton

Until Saturday, October 4

IN the year which marks 100 since the outbreak of World War One, Bolton’s Octagon Theatre is at the forefront of ensuring the bravery of ordinary men is not forgotten.

The Octagon launched its new season with Journey’s End, a play which gives a glimpse into life in the trenches for the officer class in the Great War.

The intimate, in-the-round staging helps place you there with the men, at mealtimes, as they prepare to go to the frontline for duty, struggle with fear and guilt and hold a conversation which will be their last.

Based on writer RC Sherriff’s own experience of the war, it sees 18-year-old Second Lieutenant Raleigh arrive in the trenches, excited by the prospect of adventure and inspired by a determination to serve his country.

He is delighted to find himself under the command of Captain Stanhope, his boyhood hero and a close family friend, but soon discovers the futility of warfare and the deaths of so many close comrades have left him a changed man.

Making an impressive Octagon debut, in the role of Captain Stanhope is James Dutton, who plays the part with authority while also portraying the character’s sensitive side.

David Birrell puts in a strong performance as the immediately likeable Osborne, Stanhope’s second in command, who at one point reads from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a way of distracting himself from the unimaginable horrors of the war.

Despite the serious subject matter, there is plenty of humour throughout the play thanks to Trotter, played by Richard Graham, who keeps the horrors at bay with food, chatter and jokes, and army officer servant Mason, played by Michael Shelford.

Tristian Brooke portrays the naivety of Raleigh well before the reality hits home and a moving scene in Act II.

Sound and lighting were used to great effect, to give an idea of the destruction going on outside the trench, with the set created imaginatively by James Cotterill using hundreds of bags filled with soil.

Some audience members may be sensitive to the use of smoke machines but I found it added to the haziness and atmosphere of the surreal situation. 

As the world continues to commemorate those who gave their lives for their countries, those in Bolton have until Saturday, October 4 to see this poignant play, directed by the Octagon's artistic director David Thacker.