Sydney Reviews

Photos – Heidrun Lohr

The Anzac Legend’s first architect, WWI correspondent-historian Charles Bean, felt something immaterial had been won in all that slaughter:
"What these men did nothing can alter now...Whatever of glory it contains nothing now can lessen...for their nation, a possession for ever. "

In The Unknown Soldier, Sandra Eldridge has written a play for young people about learning, relationships, and the possession of history. Directed by Matt Edgerton, and performed by Sandra Eldridge and Felix Johnson this Monkey Baa production is definitely not for adults. For watchers of a different age this might be an earnest and provocative excavation of history and remembrance, but I found it condescending and more than a little twee. That said, the production is professional and the performances sincere with an especially accomplished performance by Sandra Eldridge.

13 year old gamer, Charlie (Felix Johnson), is staying with his cooky pacifist aunt Angela (Sandra Eldridge) in the country. A mystery box from an antique fair leads to a trove of WWI letters. Some are from an Australian private on the Western front to his mother in Sydney; others an Australian nurse seeking to recover a son who is missing, presumed dead. Through these narratives Charlie and Angela explore the issues of war, history and Charlie’s troubled relationship with his Afghan-war veteran father – now suffering from PTSD. Ultimately Charlie and Angela find peace under the metaphorical stars of the Australian War Memorial where the suffering of war is sanctified in solemn remembrance. The Unknown soldier is now known.   

Anna Gardiner provides a minimalist stage of beige styrofoam patched with replica letters from the Australian War Memorial. This serves initially as the interior of a house, but folds into the trenches and no-man’s land of Fromelles. At various points the fog of war literally oozes from the set and envelops us in its asthmatic embrace. This may have to be rethought if children really are the intended audience. Lighting by Matt Cox is atmospheric and provokes the imagination while sound-design by David Stalley is restrained, but dramatic when necessary.

There are some good things about this play. I always applaud new work and The Unknown Soldier is based on original letters from the War Memorial. That it seeks to explore the tragedy of WWI for a new generation while alluding to Afghanistan and post-traumatic stress in veterans is equally commendable. But the drama in The Unknown Soldier is so painfully contrived it verges on cringeworthy; the characters feel like little more than cliches with lines. A sullen computer gaming teenager and a dotty biscuit-baking tree changer contrast with a white-as-snow dinky-die recruit (sacrificed like Archie Hamilton at the trill of a whistle), and a mother-theresa nurse waiting faithfully behind the lines to mourn his death with sappy poetry. That this ceremony of innocence-drowned culminates in a fade-out in the War Memorial while the Last Post swells to peak melodrama makes me think this play needed an editor, not an audience.  

You can make kids eat broccoli, but you can’t make them like it. I wonder how they find The Unknown Soldier.


Monkey Baa Theatre presents
The Unknown Soldier
by Sandra Eldridge

Directed by Matt Edgerton

Venue: Lend Lease Darling Quarter Theatre (across from the Children’s Playground in Darling Harbour)
Dates: 16 – 22 May, 2015
Tickets: $25 (+ booking fee)
Bookings: www.monkeybaa.com.au | 02 8624 9340