Another theatre journey

Last night I saw Journey's End at the Comedy Theatre. I didn't know the play at all, but can see how it made such a great impact on the British perception of the fate of so many soldiers on the western front during World War One. The original performances, back in 1927, were semi-staged readings by a club formed to interest the West End theatres in new works; the part of the company commander, Stanhope, was played by Laurence Olivier, and it proved a star-making role. By the time the play proceeded to a full professional production, Stanhope was played by Colin Clive, later best known for his Frankenstein in the first Universal film. The part could do the same for Geoffrey Streatfield, whose range is impressive; I'd only seen him before in a television-drama documentary, where he played George III. Other actors who impressed were Phil Cornwell, whom I've only seen before as an impressionist, and David Haig who is on stage almost all the time for the first two-thirds of the play.

Watching the actors was like looking through a letterbox, and almost like a widescreen film presentation, but it gave a good sense of the cramped conditions in the trenches. The Comedy Theatre is extremely uncomfortable, however, as the leg room remains at Victorian proportions, and had the row my father and I were in not had a couple of seats empty, we would have been in difficulties; even at an angle of 60 degrees my knees were pressed against the seats in front.