The final show in the Westport Country Playhouse’s 75th anniversary summer season will be “Journey’s End.” The play celebrating heroism runs Aug. 18 through Sept. 4.
First staged in 1929, “Journey’s End” was called “the play that swept the world,” according to a Playhouse announcement. It is based on the author R.C. Sherriff’s own experience during World War I.
Joanne Woodward, Playhouse artistic director, said, “This extraordinary rarity of a play is about human decency, about courage, comradeship and trust. Deeply moving, yet laced with humor, it is as pertinent now as ever.”
“Journey’s End” shows the effects of war on a group of British soldiers during WWI.
Director is Gregory Boyd, artistic director of the Alley Theatre in Houston, and winner of a 2005 Connecticut Critics Circle Award for his direction of “Travesties” at Long Wharf Theatre. Boyd also directed the Playhouse’s production of “Dear Brutus” earlier this summer season.
The cast of “Journey’s End” is Mark Shanahan as Stanhope; James Black as Osborne; Andrew Weems as Trotter; Kieran Campion as Raleigh; George Taylor as The Colonel; Daniel Stewart as The Company Sergeant-Major; Noble Shropshire as Mason; Daniel Stewart as Hardy; Trevor Vaughn as a Young German Soldier; Andrew Kirsch of Westport as a Soldier; and Jayce Henderson as a Soldier.
Kirsch and Henderson are also Playhouse interns.
Production credits include Hugh Landwehr, set design; Linda Fisher, costume design; Clifton Taylor, lighting design; John Gromada, sound design; Stephen Gabis, dialect coach; Linda Harris, production stage manager; Deborah Brown, casting director; and Ruth Moe, production manager.
A Sunday Symposium on Sunday, Aug. 21, at approximately 5:30 p.m., will follow the 3 p.m. matinee and precede the 7:30 p.m. evening performance.
The Symposium’s topic, “The Lost Generation,” will discuss the historical and literary perspectives on the nature of WWI, the generation of young men lost and the ramifications for continental Europe.
Speakers will be Jay M. Winter, a specialist on World War I and its impact on the 20th century, and Fredric Smoler, a specialist in European history and culture.
Winter is the Charles J. Stille Professor of History at Yale University. Smoler is the chair of the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College.
A TalkBack is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 1, when members of the company will engage in a lively discussion and Q&A with the audience after the 8 p.m. show. There is no additional charge for Sunday Symposium or Thursday TalkBack events.
The performance schedule is Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays at 8:30 p.m.; Sundays at 7:30 p.m. (first week only); matinees on Wednesdays at 2 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.; and Saturday twilight shows at 4 p.m.
Opening night (first Saturday) begins at 7:30 p.m. with no 4 p.m. show on that day.
