Theatrical history
From Anthony Mott
Sir: R.C. Sherriff published an autobiography, No Leading Lady, in 1968, but perhaps it is not so surprising that Robert Gore-Langton omitted to acknowledge any debt to that book in his piece on the author of Journey’s End (‘Truth from the trenches’, 15 January). By Sherriff’s own account, at least two of Gore-Langton’s facts are wrong. Journey’s End was never submitted to the Kingston Rowing Club’s amateur dramatic group, the Adventurers. Sherriff had finished writing for the Club after five productions. Not just an ‘eagleeyed critic’ gushed about the first Sundaynight production of the play. Hannen Swaffer in the Daily Express, W.A. Darlington in the Daily Telegraph, and the drama critics of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror all gave it glowing reviews. Especially influential was James Agate, who in his weekly radio talk said, ‘I have never been so deeply moved, so enthralled, so exalted.’ Even then, the commercial producers shunned Journey’s End. It took an untried chancer, Maurice Brown, to risk all and produce it at the Savoy Theatre. The rest was, truly, theatrical history.
Anthony Mott London W4
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