Download Journey’s End - Show My English

Journey’s End
An Introduction
The Form of a
Play
DISCUSS
What are the advantages and
disadvantages of using a
theatrical play to present the
horrors of World War One?
You may have come up with….
Advantages:
• Provides immediacy, as the
audience experience the
action live.
• Theatre is very visual, helping
the reader to engage with
characters and events.
• Theatre can create a greater
sense of suspense and drama.
• Music and sound effects can
add to the tension and drama
and help the reader to imagine
what war was like.
Disadvantages:
• It would be almost impossible
to show no-man’s land and the
actual fighting in a realistic
way.
• There is a limit to how many
locations you can have due to
scenery and set changes.
• Unless you are at the very
front of the audience, it is not
always possible to see facial
expressions and fully
understand the feelings of
characters.
What else have you come up with?
Setting the Scene
• Look at the detailed scene information on
page 8.
• Quickly sketch and label how the stage would
look.
• How has Sherriff managed to deal with some
of the issues that we noted were
disadvantages of the play form?
While Reading…
Annotate your text as you go along. Look for
the following:
• References to shell-shock / symptoms
• Aspects relating to the horror/reality of war
• Any similarities you notice with Regeneration.
• Start to write key words at the top of the page
– e.g. the name s of characters on the page
etc. This will help you to find specific parts of
the text more quickly later on.