This semester, I was in a Drama class, in which our goal was to eventually perform a play. The play that we were performing was called Journey’s End, a 1928 realistic play set in the trenches near Saint-Quentin, Aisne, towards the end of World War 1. The story takes place in the officer’s dugout of a British Army infantry company from the 18th of March 1918 to the 21st of March 1918. This play provides insight into the lives of the officers in the last few days prior to Operation Michael. As this play is extremely long and we did not have much time to work on it, many scenes had to be cut in order to make things easier for all of us.
I played two characters: the Colonel, and Madge. Madge is the sister of the main character, Raleigh, and the girlfriend of the Captain, Stanhope. As the story is set in the trenches, Madge doesn’t interact with any of the other characters, and only appears in one scene (it may be important to note that Madge does not appear in the original play and is only mentioned by name. We added this appearance in our adaptation to show that the war did not just affect the soldiers fighting in it, and to construct more relationships between characters). In Madge’s scene, she reads out a letter to her written by her brother Raleigh, who has just arrived at the trenches to find that Stanhope, his childhood friend, and sister’s boyfriend, is his company commander. In the letter, Raleigh tells Madge about his journey to the trenches before filling her in on how her partner is doing.
The Colonel is Stanhope’s immediate superior. In our adaptation of this play, the Colonel only appears in one scene, in which the Colonel tells Stanhope to expect the big German attack on the 21st of March. He also informs Stanhope of the high-ranking general’s decision to raid the German trenches before the attack.
This production was a great way for me to work on and improve my movement techniques in a practical environment, especially considering the fact that I was playing two very different characters. As the Colonel is a man of high status, I was careful to make sure I was not dragging my feet when I was walking, and that I maintained good posture and kept my head held high during my scene. There is a point in the scene where Stanhope asks the Colonel to sit next to him. As the Colonel is not an equal to Stanhope, I ensured that I was sitting close enough to maintain a professional image for the Colonel, but not so far away that I made it seem as if he thought badly of Stanhope. At one point in the scene, the Colonel is trying to convince Stanhope that it is a good idea to send Raleigh to the raid of the German trenches. Stanhope, wanting to protect Raleigh, states that ‘it is rotten to send a fellow who’s only just arrived!” to which the Colonel responds, ‘All to the good – his nerves are sound.’ with his hands on his hips, signalling to Stanhope that the Colonel knows he will get his way.
I also appreciated the opportunity to work on my vocal techniques, one of which being emphasis. An example of this is during the scene in which the Colonel is informing Stanhope of the big German attack that is to come, and asking Stanhope to help him choose two officers to lead a raid of the German trenches. Stanhope suggests that they send a sergeant, to which the Colonel responds with, “No, I don’t think so. The men expect officers to lead a raid.” I put emphasis on the word ‘officers’ and gave Stanhope a look that expressed the Colonel’s disapproval of Stanhope’s suggestion. As the camera we were using to record was not very close to me, I had to make sure that I was projecting my voice so it would be loud enough for the camera to pick it up. This look also shows that the Colonel shows great respect towards the rules, and intends to follow them. Another vocal technique that I used in my portrayal of the Colonel was the way I manipulated my articulation, putting emphasis on the vowel sounds (using received pronunciation) to show that he was of a high rank.
Overall, this class was a great learning experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though we didn’t get to perform in front of an audience due to the unfortunate injuries of some cast members, we still got to perform and film our play in class time. A clip of this performance is attached, and it is an excerpt from the scene in which the Colonel is informing Stanhope of the big German attack expected soon.