By Mikayla van Loon
It’s been three years in the making and finally the stories of some of the Yarra Ranges’ Vietnam veterans will be told in the live performance of Forgotten Heroes.
After years of planning, writing and practicing, the Dandenong Ranges Music Council, with funding support from Yarra Ranges Council, will be performing the compilation of real life experiences on Saturday 24 September at the Burrinja Cultural Centre’s Lyre Room.
Bringing together music, acting and the spoken word, actor Stephen Hall said being part of such a powerful and varied performance is very different from other roles he’s played but it also taught him about a part of history that he’d never known much about.
“It was a real eye opener, I learned a lot and I learned a lot about the way they were treated especially when they came home. They were just really pariahs and treated really badly,” he said.
“Society really gave them a very rough time and so for many of them, it was very difficult even adjusting to civilian life.”
Taking on these stories to re-enact, many which were told by Mount Evelyn RSL’s former president Roger Boness, Stephen said were extraordinary moments to capture and immerse himself into.
“These were kids, 20-years-old who had never travelled and they’re thrown into these life or death situations in really difficult jungle conditions, which the enemy knows way better than they do.
“So they were just on edge the whole time naturally and that can’t fail to give you scars. So I also learned a lot about how the veteran movement has reinvented itself and the treatment of returned servicemen and women is very different these days.”
One of the key messages of the performance, something Stephen and director Tes Lyssiotis said, is the reflection on history and the treatment of soldiers so a repeat doesn’t happen again.
“A vet is a vet and it doesn’t matter which conflict you fought in, when you come back from the war zone, no matter if it’s Iraq or Afghanistan, you’ve been through an experience and we can’t know unless we’ve been there,” Tes said.
“They need to be treated, all of them, in a much more respectful way and I liked the fact that Roger said, a vet is a vet, it doesn’t matter.”
Directing a show such as this with all the elements it has, Tes said was a joy and each part has an emotional power to it, whether it be sorrow or laughter.
“If we’ve all done our job properly, as professionals working in this area, you want your audiences to come away feeling informed, because a lot of people who come won’t know about what happened in that period of time in Australia,” she said.
“I would hope that there would be people who didn’t live at that time, who are from a younger generation who can perhaps learn something about the Vietnam War and from the people who were conscripted.”
Tes also hopes the performance will empower not only Vietnam veterans but also younger veterans to tell their stories and invite others to listen without judgement.
“It would be great if there was a greater understanding and empathy and compassion for the experiences of other people and shine a light on some of these stories of people in this extraordinarily difficult, challenging life and death and tragic conflict,” Stephen added.
The show has it all, from the heartbreaking personal letters that became the lifelines for many veterans to the “very funny and amusing and the suspenseful where the stakes are very high”.
Stephen and Tes said Forgotten Heroes will touch each and every person from start to finish.
Tickets can be booked via the Burrinja website here, www.burrinja.org.au/burrinja-whats-on/whats-new-theatre. The performance begins at 7.30pm.
