Keighley Playhouse is staging a moving play offering a compelling account of life in the trenches for soldiers in the First World War.

Journey’s End, running this week, is based upon writer RC Sherriff’s experiences as an army captain in the war between 1914 and 1918.

What attracted the Keighley theatre company to the play this season was the daring attempt to portray the historic conflict using emotion rather than physical action.

Director Mike Boothroyd says the play reflects the horror and futility of trench warfare. Conflicts between the characters, and the unbearable tension of life in the trenches, leads them to frequently refer to home and life away from the front line. What they share is fear, compounded by a creeping sense that there’s no reason to their actions.

“The landmark drama is filled with instances of soldiers checking their watches, asking the time, counting off days, hours and minutes,” he says.

“But no clock or chart can begin to measure time as these men experience it. The minutes contract and dilate, like wary eyes in a shifting light amid the silence. It is the period before a battle that may or may not happen – but will probably be their death if it does.”

He adds: “The story of men at war in close hand-to-hand combat may hark from a bygone era, but the same sense of absurdity, of loss and of bravery against nonsensical policy, lies at its heart from a play that remains timeless.

“Keighley Playhouse’s production presents a realistic picture of life in the trenches and a graphic portrayal of the horrors and futility of war. The art of warfare may have changed in the last 90 years, but the human consequences will forever remain the same.

“From the first war of the 21st century back to the first war of the 20th century, Journey’s End insists we must consider what such a journey does to a man.”

Journey’s End runs at Keighley Playhouse from tonight until Saturday. For tickets, ring 08451 267859, or visit keighleyplayhouse.co.uk.