Three high school stu­dents from Aus­tralia and New Zealand have won a com­pe­ti­tion to vis­it Gal­lipoli for the ANZAC day com­mem­o­ra­tions. They are escort­ed over by two com­pa­ny rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Every­thing is going accord­ing to the sched­ule when one of the stu­dents goes off script. The fall­out affects them all.

This is the 2015 STAB pro­duc­tion and is a col­lab­o­ra­tion between Can­ber­ra Youth The­atre and Long Cloud Youth The­atre. Accord­ing to the Writer’s Note in the pro­gramme it explores the “way the [ANZAC] sto­ry [of mate­ship] sits with us today” and the con­tent was “dri­ven by the artists of CYT and Long Cloud Youth The­atre.” It’s an inter­est­ing way to look at the mythol­o­gis­ing of ANZAC; the ques­tions from a generation/s who have lit­tle direct con­nec­tion to the orig­i­nal ANZACs.

The script some­times verges on the edge of lec­tur­ing but most­ly allows the actors to explore the ques­tions. Bel­la Guar­rera as Lori, the stu­dent who goes off script, is the cen­tre of this sto­ry.  I liked both her sulky teenag­er and her wide-eyed tourist. Lydia Buck­ley-For­man plays Helen, one of the chap­er­ones. She and Andrew Eddey (Dar­ryn, the oth­er chap­er­one) work togeth­er well as they tus­sle for lead­er­ship and con­trol over the tour. Nathalie Mor­ris (Char­lie) and Richard Cot­ta (Kip) are the oth­er two stu­dents. Both give a good sense of their char­ac­ters – Mor­ris a qui­et­ly deter­mined pod­cast­er, and Cot­ta a hearty type from a mil­i­tary fam­i­ly. Liam Kel­ly is Owen, a slight­ly mys­te­ri­ous and provoca­tive indi­vid­ual who knows Lori. Kel­ly and Cot­ta also play two sol­diers. Their open­ing scene nice­ly con­trasts with the scenes in which Bud­k­ley-Gor­man and Mor­ris play nurs­es. The indi­vid­ual per­form­ers are sup­port­ed by an ensem­ble. Bel­la Austin, Alex Tunui, Kee­gan Bragg, Liam Whit­ney, Kirsten Jongs­ma are well rehearsed. It’s a gen­uine plea­sure to watch them whirl about the stage or deliv­er lines.

There were a few tech­ni­cal issues the night I saw it, but I’m sure the com­pa­ny will have set­tled into BATS by now.

  • Dead Men’s Wars by Ralph McCub­bin How­ell, direct­ed by Brett Adam, at BATS The­atre to 31 Octo­ber 2015