Review: Gallipoli

Gallipoli by Nigel Jamieson
Sydney Theatre Company
Sydney Theatre


To no man does the earth mean so much as to the soldier. When he presses himself down upon her long and powerfully, when he buries his face and his limbs deep in her from the fear of death by shell-fire, then she is his only friend, his brother, his mother; he stifles his terror and his cries in her silence and security; she shelters him and gives him a new lease of ten seconds of life, receives him again and often for ever.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque


First published in 1929, Remarque's confronting account of his experiences on the Western Front was deemed traitorous by Hitler's Nazis and was one of thousands of books to be burnt.

Written during the years just after the Versailles Treaty it gives that very personal tale set against the war machinery of Government. It was part of the Roaring 1920's which represented a solid decade of reflection and denial for the peoples and countries involved in that horrific war. It was Weimar, flappers and garconne. And Remarque is the quintessential figure of that reflection and denial.

Australia was no different and dealt with the horror of the war like everyone else. Survivors returned home and picked up where they had left off. The waste was not lost on many but it was terribly hard to swallow. Lest we forget.

Every country town and city built landmarks, statues and memorials in honour of the fallen. In Sydney's Hyde Park the architect Bruce Dellitt was commissioned to build a beautiful art deco structure in memory of the lost Anzacs.

If you observe the statues and the granite carvings of the memorial you see some of the most graphic and violent images that deplores war. It would make any pacifist proud. Indeed, if you look closer, you can see empty space on both sides of the monument where two bronze statues are missing.

They were deemed to have far too much anti-war sentiment and they were not permitted to be erected by the government authorities. They are still locked up in a vault somewhere.

Denial and reflection.

But ninety years later and the Australian people are a little less afraid of facing up to the waste of World War One. Or war in general for that matter. 400,000 protesters marching the streets of Australia in the lead-up to Iraq is testament to that.

The story of Gallipoli and the Western Front is now compulsory historical learning in high schools across the country. They study the home front and the war front. We have the Mark Lee and Mel Gibson film, we have historical narratives, primary sources and documentaries all focusing on one common theme - what a bloody waste.

Which makes Nigel Jamieson's production of Gallipoli puzzling. It adds absolutely nothing to what is already out there in the great canon of World War One literature.

Technically, this is an astonishing production and epic in quality. It has that trademark Jamieson quality that can be found in his recent successes of Honour Bound and Dead Man Walking. The multimedia footage projected on the back wall, video projection, the lighting, the rigs. It is often quite breath-taking.

But, in the end, it is a confused narrative with a script that is so self conscious and didactic that the real stories and personal tragedy get lost under text-book stereotypes.

Utilising the STC's Actors Company and NIDA third year students, it is an enormous show that travels from the cities and towns across the Commonwealth, to Egypt, to Lord Kitchener and finally the Dardanelles. There are music hall scenes, great speeches delivered, hand to hand combat, trench warfare, blood and death.

To centre the production, Jamieson tries to use the character of Charles Bean (Luke Mullins), War Correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald as a type of Remarque figure. He is the self conscious young journalist who writes propaganda for the paper and the personal truth in his diaries. However, it's a very simple portrayal of a complex historical figure.

Jamieson uses many primary sources from letters and diaries which all have that self-conscious narrative. Actors playing nurses or soldiers or officers will walk down centre stage and deliver the extracts to the audience with constant descriptive analysis of how they felt. Reading such testimonials is informative for the scholar or the interested reader, but placing them on stage means that the audience is always told and never shown how they felt.

The simple art of story-telling has been lost within primary source confusion.

The other problem is that Jamieson has worked from the basis that the audience knows nothing of the Gallipoli experience. It denies the ninety years of learning or the oral history that has been passed down from generation to generation. It denies the writing of Remarque of Sassoon of Owen. We know World War One was not a walk in the park.

In one way, this production might have been better shown when the War Memorial in Hyde Park was officially opened in 1929. For the generation who came back to their years of 1920's peace, it would be a confronting history of complicity and waste. A complicity and waste that they tried to ignore but which we now know.


Robert, there's a war in France;
Everywhere men bang and blunder,
Sweat and swear and worship Chance,
Creep and blink through cannon thunder.
Rifles crack and bullets flick,
Sing and hum like hornet-swarms.
Bones are smashed and buried quick.
Yet, through stunning battle storms,
All the while I watch the spark
Lit to guide me; for I know
Dreams will triumph, though the dark
Scowls above me where I go.
You can hear me; you can mingle
Radiant folly with my jingle.
War's a joke for me and you
While we know such dreams are true!

Siegfried Sassoon


Directed and designed by Nigel Jamieson Brad Clark Alexandra Sommer Trudy Dalgliesh Alan John Steve Francis Antonia Fredman Gavin Robins Charmain Gradwell Nicole Alexander Mark Haslam Damien Millar.

With the STC Actors Company Brandon Burke Peter Carroll Marta Dusseldorp Eden Falk John Gaden Steve Le Marquand Ewan Leslie Hayley Mcelhinney Amber McMahon Luke Mullins Pamela Rabe Emily Russell.

And with 3rd year NIDA Students Julia Billington Kit Brookman Travis Cardona Katharine Cullen Andy Cunningham Julian Curtis James Elliott Matthew Hardie Aimee Horne Graham Hyland Bradley Kannegiesser Nick Maricic Josh McConville Stuart McRae August Miller Libby Munro Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood Ashley Ricardo Alexander Russell Demitrios Sirilas Sarah Snook Miranda Tapsell Nigel Turner-Carroll.

Until 23 August.

Photo credit: Brett Boardman