During the second World War, one million Australians served in uniform out of a population of seven million.
Not all saw combat, but as a nation everybody knew somebody who had served. There was a collective experience of having been through something. Now, out of a population of 25 million, only 25 thousand Australians served in Afghanistan – our longest war.
More veterans from these modern conflicts have been lost to suicide than to actual combat. They need understanding and they need support, and maybe that starts with hearing their stories.
‘First Casualty’ is written by Christopher Johnston, someone who was there. He tells their story and tells it well. Not any one story, but a story that says, 'this is what it felt like'.
The plot of ‘First Casualty’ will read like a list of cliches, soldiers counting down the last week of their deployment coming under increasing pressure. A joker sapper with a heart of gold, a gruff veteran sergeant, a guilt-ridden soldier looking to make amends for a mistake that cost casualties, a detached general far from the fighting with no concern for the men and an idealistic officer calling a pregnant wife every night. Yet cliches exist for a reason and there is an authenticity that rings true here in the dialogue and even in the handling of an F88 Austeyr from the cast.
It is not a literal recount of one person’s deployment to the warzone in one year. More, it draws upon things we dimly recall through media. Blue on Green incidents, alleged war crimes, hearts and mind campaigns, overwatch to mentoring forces, media fly ins and the ever-present threat of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
Christen O’Leary is a stand-out as Brigadier Michaela Cain all pomp and PR and Reagan Mannix’s Sapper Kent and Steven Rooke as Sergeant Hunter give strong performances as charismatic figures that dwarf others. Yet the quiet turns from Amer Thabet as local chieftain Malim Khan, Reza Momenzada as interpreter Ali, Mitchell Bourke as Captain Kelly, and Will Bartolo as Corporal Woods and, yes, Christen again as a RAAF psychologist, complete the picture.
The performers do a good job of expressing the thoughts of the common soldier and the experiences they went through. There is a lot of time given to the thoughts and experiences of the individual Afghanistan experience too. The play is not afraid to raise big questions about what may have occurred in war, and why.
Director Lee Lewis evokes the tension of defusing an IED and the banter and frustration of life in a Forward Operating Base (FOB), contrasting them sharply with the bluster of a media campaign that feels removed from anything remotely real. The stage is a series of tightly-spaced platforms standing in for the aqueducts moved through and the mountains that dot the landscape, the lookout towers of the FOB and the beds to bunker down in.
Screens play visual images for background, media reports or video calls from home. All to create an impression of what it was like, but reminding that everything seems temporary and ethereal, going blank in an instant. A highlight is a song and dance number where the Brigadier arrives for the opening of a school and to trumpet a new strategy in a fantastic sequinned dress uniform.
What was it all for? The play hints at the question but does not concern itself with an answer. It cares about those who were there and now, years after, they have come back wanting to know. . . Can they finally come home?
