My Father’s Wars – live performance
On the day that she discovers she can’t bury her dying mother with her father, Ruth realises that much of her childhood was shaped by her father’s experience of war, many years before she was born.
My Father’s Wars is the vivid, funny and sometimes shocking story of a daughter’s search for her dead father amongst the letters and diaries of other young soldiers who fought with him.
Part verbatim work, part personal story, the play takes us to the muddy trenches of the Western Front and to a child’s suburban Brisbane, transforming the story of one ANZAC into a universal story of soldiering and its intergenerational impact. These are all our fathers.
My Father’s Wars was digitally captured in front of a live audience at Yeronga State High School on 3 October, 2021.
Audience comments on the filmed performance:
“… Hearing the real words of Queenslanders echoing down through time, broken down and shared through the dramatic medium, was a hauntingly human Experience…”
…”the actors take you inside the heads and hearts of their characters and the production leaves you with a vivid sense of the impact of war and its ripple effect through time…”
“…Absolutely loved the flips between the battle and the present…”
“… my husband is a very quiet man… and for him to have felt so moved and comfortable with the post-show discussion was HUGE…”
For Educators
My Father’s Wars is suitable for Years 7-12.
Content warning: not needed.
Work includes: Some loud noises; references to war and scenes depicting action in war but there are no enactments of violence/killing on stage.
AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM (THE ARTS) ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS (YRS 9-10): Students are given opportunities to meet national curriculum standards in understanding and applying, practicing and performing, elements of drama, forms and conventions, and aesthetic effect, in self-created work, using different drama practices to evaluate different viewpoints while refining expressive skills and conveying dramatic action.
DRAMA SENIOR SECONDARY SYLLABUS GENERAL (YRS 11-12) and DRAMA IN PRACTICE APPLIED SENIOR SYLLABUS: This performance has direct links to Units 1 (Share) and 2 (Reflect), which focus on understanding the human experience via cultural inheritance through storytelling, and oral history; and it connects to modules 1 and 3 in Drama in Practice (Applied Senior Syllabus), focussing on making, shaping and sharing our stories, and on speaking the communities’ stories.
My Father’s Wars: Education Packages
All videos purchased as part of a package can be watched online or are available for download.
Full Package
$335
- Performance Video
- Creatives Videos
- Learning Support Materials
- One script
Package A: Theatre Immersion
$280
- Performance Video
- Creatives Videos
- One script
Package B: Theatre Education
$290
- Performance Video
- Learning Support Materials
- One script
My Father’s Wars: Videos to Buy
All purchased videos can be watched online or are available for download.
Performance Video
$220
- Performance Video
Creative Team Videos
$45
- Playwriting with Elaine Acworth
- Rehearsal Excerpt
- Directing with Guy Webster
- Lighting Design with Geoff Squires
My Father’s Wars: Videos to Rent
Rented videos are only available to watch online for the duration of the rental agreement.
Performance Video
Available to Rent
- Performance Video
Performance Video & Creative Team Videos
Available to Rent
- Performance Video
- Playwriting with Elaine Acworth
- Rehearsal Excerpt
- Directing with Guy Webster
- Lighting Design with Geoff Squires
My Father’s Wars: Scripts to Buy
Single License
$15
Perfect for individual use. Single license scripts must not be distributed.
Class Licenses
$12 each (minimum 6)
Multiple licenses for distributing across a classroom(s). Scripts may be printed and/or used electronically. Not to be shared outside your school.
Production Team
Creatives
- Writer and Co-Producer: Elaine Acworth
- Co-Producer: Lewis Jones
- Director: Guy Webster
- Lighting Designer: Geoff Squires
- Sound Design & Original Music: Guy Webster
- Assistant Sound Designer & Sound Recordist: Mick Trevisan
- Stage Management: Stephen Rowan
- Videography: Shaun Charles
- Education Consultants: Adrianne Jones & Madonna Stinson
Cast
- Barbara Lowing
- Zachary Boulton
- Michael Mandalios
Acknowledgements
Assembly of Elephants acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands on which we walk, work and live. We wish to pay respects to elders past, present and emerging and to the fact that First Nations peoples have always defended this land and, in fact, were the very first people to do so.
My Father’s Wars has been supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. It has also been supported by Codex Consulting, Yeronga SHS, the State Library of Queensland, the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and the Tivoli.
