Nevada's 2nd Oldest Continuously-Operating Theater Company, since 1965

One of seven plays written by R.C.Sherriff, and first produced in 1928, it has been called "the greatest of all war plays." Historically accurate, the setting is very important as it has come to be viewed as a play about the truth of war. Sherriff did not intend the play to explore the rights and wrongs of war, and wrote that his characters were "simple, unquestioning men who fought the war because because it seemed the only right and proper thing to do..." All action of the play takes place in the dugout where



the soldiers eat and sleep. The basic living conditions serve as a reminder to the audience of the hardships the soldiers went through. They did not know when the war would end and spent alot of time waiting and doing nothing. Their boredom was made worse by the cramped conditions of the trenches. These conditions, however, allowed a closeness that Sherriff explores, as well as the emergence of duty, loyalty, bravery...the nobility of the soldiers. At the same time it reminds the audience of the horrible wreckage of their young lives and the futility of their deaths.

Against the background of life in the trenches of a group of officers behind British lines at St. Quentin, France, the characters live in a world of fear, disillusionment, precariousness, friendship, loyalty, naivety, guilt, and abandon. Captain Stanhope, company commander, long over the exuberance and assuredness of the early war days, has taken to whisky as a solitary refuge for the psychological strain he must endure with each new attack order given from headquarters. The German machine guns are relentless and the immobility of trench warfare results in countless deaths. The men in his command see Stanhope's deterioration and regard him with a mixture of respect and fear. Lieutenant Osborne, an older officer, affectionately known as "uncle," provides Stanhope with the confidence and "willing ear" he so desperately needs. Into this nightmare enters second Lieutenant Raleigh, a young, inexperienced officer, whose sister is Stanhope's love-interest back home and who is as enthusiastic as his captain is bleak. Stanhope's already vitiating psyche is further blighted by Raleigh's presence as he feels the young officer must be judging him as an embittered, unreliable drunkard. After many clashes and the death of Osborne on another raid, Raleigh, himself, falls victim to the Hun and dies in Stanhope's arms. Stanhope is left to his own inexorable fate.