REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1049, 13 August 1930, Page 17

REGENT

“JOURNEY’S END” “Journey’s End” continues to be shown at the Regent Theatre. The play concerns a brief period in the lives of a certain group of officers In a dugout In a British trench before St. Quentin. It is a record of the arrival at the front of a young officer who is the brother of the girl to whom the company commander had been engaged; of the cowardice of another young man; of the heroic death of the second in command; of a raiding party to bring back needed German prisoners. But any description of it must be inadequate. It has to be heard, seen, and felt to be appreciated, for it is more than a story of war—it is a story of all war, whether in trench or battlefield or elsewhere —a story of the struggle of such abstract qualities as honour and humanity and guts to survive against horror and fear and tho unbearable that must be borne. Colin Clive heads the cast in the role of Captain Stanhope, and his perfect performance is equalled by the others —lan Maclaren is the lovable “uncle,” willing to go to hell with his young commander; Anthony Bushell as Hibbert, driven by fear to sham sickness; David Manners as the heroworshipping youngster; Filly Bevan as Trotter, mostly concerned because war interferes with his meals; Charles Gerrard, maker of dark yellow soup and onion-flavoured tea; Jack Pitcairn as the colonel; Thomas Whiteley as sergeant-major; Warner Klinger as the German lad; Robert A'Dair as the careless captain.