In “Journey’s End” a range of classes is shown from Stanhope and Raleigh, who are upper class men who went to public school, through to Mason, the cook who is working class. This is unlike our production where everyone is quite equal. A similarity is the culture of the people in both productions. In “Friends Divided” everyone is British; it is the same in “Journey’s End” although a German soldier is brought in at one point.
Both of the productions are tragedies. “Journey’s End” shows the impact of war on the men who have to fight it. When the German soldier is brought in they search his pockets and all they find is string, sweets, a pocket-knife, a pencil and chocolate. They show that he is only a boy and it emphasises the tragedy of war. “Friends Divided” shows the impact that authority and power can have on somebody and the impact that that has on the other people involved. “Journey’s End” is set over a period of four days and shows how quickly tragedy can come around but ours was set over a much longer time scale of a few months showing that something can begin slowly then suddenly get a lot worse.
“Journey’s End” is set in a dug-out, it is a naturalistic setting. The set is a box set which shows how compact the dug out would have been and it also gives an impression of earth being above. In the production I saw, the walls were made of corrugated iron and wood and the whole place was very dark, as there was only one set needed a lot of detail could be put into it. The dialogue used was very realistic and kept to the period of the play; there was no direct address or narrator. As our play was performed in a studio, we had limited space and also limited choices for design. We had to use a representational set and had screens and doorways to represent different things in the production.
In “Friends Divided” we used a variety of techniques. Split staging was a main factor. It was used to show what was happening in three places at once, for example, when Josh was giving Dan his orders, centre stage, I was on one side of the stage doing things like checking my watch, to show my impatience and James. P was on the other side writing in files, not realising what was happening. Something else we used was monologues, they helped to really reveal peoples feelings about the situation. “Journey’s End” didn’t use either of these but it did use a tableau at the end of the production that I saw. It wasn’t in the text but it worked brilliantly, all of the characters came on stage and stood perfectly still in front of a background which was lists of names of dead soldiers. The only movement made was when they removed their helmets in respect. They never bowed and it showed great respect to the soldiers who had died during the war. The huge amount of names also emphasised the point of the production and showed the tragedy of war and how many lives were lost.
In our production we used floods for general lighting, although, when Josh was listening to his conscience the lights were dimmed slightly. This was to create an impression of him being alone in his thoughts. Also, spotlights were used when Josh and I were reading the letter and for Dan’s monologue. The only sounds effects we used were a phones ringing. In “Journey’s End” everything was quite dim as the room was meant to be lit by candle light and there would be a blackout to symbolise the end of each day. Sound effects were used very well. They had bombs and guns firing, a sound which escalated at the end when all of the soldiers went onto the front.
The main theme of “Friends Divided” was authority and how it can begin to take over all aspects of your life. It shows how even though you may begin with good intentions things can still get out of hand. “Journey’s End” shows the pointlessness and horror of war and also how the enthusiasm of youth can lead to misperception of what lies ahead of them. The response we wanted from the audience was for them to think about what they have and not take any of it for granted. The production I saw of “Journey’s End” made quite an emotional impact on me and, I believe, the rest of the audience. It really gets its point across and certainly sticks in your mind.
Our production differs to “Journey’s End” in the obvious way that “Journey’s End” is about war and “Friends Divided” is about the lives of ordinary civilians. In “Journey’s End” at least one soldier dies and it is never shown that the others also die, but it is assumed, whereas in our production Josh ends up alone but the other characters end up quite happy as a result of his misfortune, not everyone has a bad ending.
The journey in “Journey’s End” was the time leading up to the Battle of the Somme. The characters went through emotional journeys thinking about war, life back at home and having to see the terror the German soldier felt. They also went through physical journeys. These were things like the cold and waiting they had to endure and reuniting with friends. In our production the journey was a journey to breakdown and all the things that contributed to it. We were showing how one thing can change someone’s journey through life and something else can send you off in a completely different direction.
I think over all our production was quite successful but if I could change anything it would be the amount we rehearsed it. We completely changed our production the week before we had to perform it, meaning we didn’t have a lot of time to practice it and it wasn’t as fluent as it could have been.
These two productions are similar in some ways but very different in others. They both use different dramatic techniques but both create a good impact on their audience.
Jessica Wills
