FIRST BIRTHDAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 922, 15 March 1930, Page 25

FIRST BIRTHDAY

Cocktails in Dug-Out in London Restaurant YEAR OF “JOURNEY’S END” Cocktails in a London dug-out in a West End restaurant were the prelude to a merry supper party to celebrate the first birthday of “Journey’s End,” the most famous war play. The dug-out was almost a replica of the familiar stage setting that has been presented to audiences over half the globe. Candles, guttering in empty bottles, tins of bully beef, ramshackle chairs and tables, tin hats and haversacks, sandbags, barbed wire and rather daring pictures from the illustrated weeklies. all were there, and the play of coloured lights in the background, suggesting Verey lights and bursting shells, helped to maintain the illusion. Through realistically grim setting a hundred men and women passed from their cocktails to the supper tables. No attempt % was made here, either in decorations or menu, to reproduce the setting of “Journey’s End,” but throughout the party eyes were continually turned toward the dug-out. Everyone seemed to realise that that brilliant piece of staging had inspired the whole play that has brought so such success to author, producer and hundreds connected with .its production in various countries. Maurice Browne, producer, and R. C. Sherrilf, the author, were the joint hosts. Their guests included all the members of the company from the Prince of Wales Theatre, representatives of all departments of the theatre, and many personal firends, among them Miss Ellen Wilkinson, M.P. Mr. Browne, Mr. Sherriff and ColiD Clive (Captain Stanhope of the plav, recently returned from Hollywood, where he has been appearing in a film version) were the chief speakers.