Long Tan

The Anzac forces in the Battle of Long Tan consisted of a mere 105 Australians and 3 New Zealanders. On August 18, 1966, just three months after arriving in Vietnam, the men of Delta Company 6 RAR were to face a battle like no other.

Long Tan playwright Verity Laughton endeavours to capture the chaos of battle and humanise the events with a story that symbolises tragedy, loss and ultimately, bravery. After interviewing soldiers and families, she has written a script not unlike a documentary, a narrative that deals with facts and personal accounts of that fateful day.

Director Chris Drummond has assembled a fine group of actors, who capture the innocence of youth and the mateship that propels this play. Each actor gives a layered performance, however the script does not allow one to get too invested in the individual and rather concentrates on the Delta Company as a whole. We are also given a glimpse of the loss still felt today and the toll endured by the North Vietnamese.

Set designer Wendy Todd has taken a simple and rather abstract approach that is cleverly thought through and helps theatrically to ‘reproduce’ the physical conditions faced in Long Tan. Audience members sit either side of a runway covered in shredded rubber that reveals a splash of red paint when disturbed. It is symbolic of not only the red mud that soldiers were forced to trudge through, but also the bloodshed.

For audience members trying to grasp the intensity and chaos of the battle, the experience is made more potent by the wearing of headphones during the performance. The loud gunfire, heavy breathing of soldiers and the screams of the innocent are emphatically heard, capturing the pandemonium.

Lighting designer Chris Petridis adds to the spectacle of the battle with lighting that darts across the stage suggesting gunfire; it is striking and helps to illuminate the battle conditions. That, mixed with steam coming up through the stage, catapults the audience into the steamy rubber plantation that is the setting for this battle.

For the last 15 minutes of the performance, soldiers indicate for the audience to remove their headphones. It is a quiet moment and marks the end of the battle and a time of reflection.

The story is told with sensitivity, though one could never fully understand the obstacles faced or the intensity of such a battle. The Battle of Long Tan symbolised the courage of many young souls taken too soon.

Hearing the names of the fallen at the conclusion is heartbreaking, but being allowed to share in their memory is a special theatre experience.

Kerry Cooper

Photographer: Kate Pardey.