The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Facing the fight
As theatre company Vamos brings its show about PTSD to Dundee Rep, artistic director Rachael Savage tells Michael Alexander why it’s a story that “must” be told
Over the last few decades Britain has sent thousands of people into combat. But what happens when these soldiers come back home, having lost their friends and killed their enemies? Rachael Savage, who trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, asked herself that question a few years ago when she read an article about former soldier Danny Fitzsimons.
In May 2008 the decorated sniper was diagnosed with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by a court-appointed doctor.
Yet he was still able to secure a job in Iraq with a private security firm while out on bail for assault.
Fitzsimmons had been back on Iraqi soil for just 36 hours when he shot dead two colleagues and was later convicted of two murders.
“His parents first knew there was a problem when they found him in a wheelie bin at 3 o’clock in the morning,” said Rachael.
“I originally started to ask questions – why did that man think he was safer in the wheelie bin? It also made me ask the question how on Earth would that make a parent feel?”
Rachael’s research then took her to Matthew Green’s 2015 PTSD book Aftershock, and particularly the story of Aaron Black, the Blairgowrie lad whose trauma, and ultimate suicide, was rooted in watching the death of his best friend.
Aaron, a 22-year-old Black Watch veteran who joined up at 17, took his own life in December 2011 just seven months after leaving the army.
Shortly before Christmas that year, and haunted by memories of Afghanistan and the deaths of soldier comrades, Aaron surrounded himself with treasured photographs, his army medals and a crucifix and sent a last goodbye text message to his mum June, before killing himself.
In the army his commander had praised him for his courage and wellcontrolled aggression.
But back in civilian life he started to lose that control.
Now Rachael, who is the artistic director of the Worcester-based Vamos Theatre company, is bringing the story of these and other soldiers who hide behind a “mask” to Dundee Rep.
A Brave Face, which is a co-production with Mercury Theatre Colchester and a co-commission with London International Mime Festival, has been touring the UK since February to rave reviews from theatregoers and veterans alike.
What makes the show so powerful is that actors all wear specially moulded masks and there is no spoken script.
I originally started to ask questions – why did that man think he was safer in the wheelie bin?
Rachael, who says she was already “anti-war”, admits that when she was first approached by the Colchester Mercury Theatre to stage a play about the military, her initial reaction was to ask why.
However, having done her research, she now accepts this was a “very naïve and civvy response” and believes the
whole of society needs to “wake up and be more aware” of PTSD.
“Ultimately this is the story of many,” said Rachael, who spent two years speaking to former and serving soldiers, families and health professionals.
“It’s the story of Michael, of Ray, of Sue, of AJ – the list of names of soldiers, mothers, wives, partners is endless and I’ve been particularly lucky to be supported by Matthew Green and also by veterans.”
Rachael said the show aimed to get to the heart of the soldiers’ stories and the struggles of their loved ones – a hidden army of wives, partners, children and parents who she says are Britain’s “true conscripts”.
Rachael owed particular thanks to veteran Ray Anderton who inspired the title A Brave Face and ensured there was a sense of realism throughout by advising on the script.
She explained: “I met Ray who early on said: ‘We all wear masks don’t we?’
“He then started saying ‘I wear a mask when I’m in denial, and then sometimes I wear a mask when I’m angry, or violent even, and that mask is not me and I don’t recognise that person’.”
Vamos was founded by Rachael in 2006, and as a fully masked theatre company the actors wear beautifully moulded pieces of plastic on their faces and do not speak.
Working closely with mask maker Russell Dean of the Strangeface Theatre Company in Kent, Rachael describes the approach as a “highly visual form of theatre”.
However, the artistic director, who previously worked on a show about dementia, says it’s also naturalistic and works incredibly well for such an intense subject as PTSD.
“The thing about the full masks is that you can feel it in the audience,” she said.
“For the first two or three minutes you can feel people in the audience thinking ‘Oh my God what have I come to? I didn’t realise they weren’t going to speak. I’m not going to be able to understand it.’
“And then within two or three minutes they start laughing, and they start laughing because they understand. And the reason they understand is because we have masked actors who have scripts inside their heads.
“With that internal monologue as we call it, the audience engage so closely that they interpret every single movement.
“They are able to read the lines, and they hear the lines of the script in their head, and because they are looking to interpret, they meet us halfway.
“Within that meeting the experience is intellectually and emotionally deeper.”
Rachael said some of the greatest plaudits so far for the production have come from veterans themselves.
She added: “When veterans have come to see it they’ve been flabbergasted and asked ‘how on Earth can a civvy get inside my head’?
“The other day in Wales we had three veterans in the front row who were shouting out at points in the show and in the end were shaking hands with the actors as they took their bow.”
However, the company has also had to take precautions.
The potential sensitivity of the show, and the number of potential veterans present, means Vamos has produced a trigger and safety sheet which warns audience members beforehand about the show’s content and themes, in a bid to minimise potential triggers for those living with PTSD.
“When I first made it I was thinking the reason I’m telling the story is to make civilians like me more aware,” Rachael said.
“What I didn’t realise was the amount of military and ex-military who would be coming to see the show.
“The most powerful thing that masks can do is move people emotionally – deeply emotionally.
“If I can change people emotionally then I can change peoples’ opinion.
“But that’s also what needs to be talked about in the trigger sheet – warnings that this is an emotionally tough scene.”
Rachael says that for masked theatre to work requires a combination of “75% just being a blooming good actor and 25% mask technique of how to connect with the audience.”
However, there’s also an underlying political message she hopes the audience will take away with them.
And she also hopes audiences will gain a greater respect for veterans and the “hidden heroes” of military families who often go without any thanks and are left to pick up the pieces if and when things end up going wrong.
Rachael added: “The British Army trains people up – men and women – over six months and give them the most gruelling and thorough training.
“What they don’t do is give them any training to become a civilian again.
“That’s what I think is shameful and missing.
“I made a show that came to Scotland in the autumn of last year called Finding Joy which was about dementia.
“I found hope within that story because I found an incredible story and an incredibly inspirational family.
“I looked for hope in this story as well. But I haven’t quite found it yet. It was a really hard two years of research actually.”
June Black, whose son’s death inspired A Brave Face, will be at Dundee Rep on May 29 and is keen to continue raising awareness about PTSD.
However, she admits she remains slightly apprehensive.
She said: “I’m told that the character Ryan is based to a large extent on Aaron’s story in Matthew Green’s book Aftershock.
“It’s a composite character and the ending is different.
“I’ll be going, but I’m slightly nervous as I may ‘recognise’ Aaron and I know only too well how it ended for him.
“It maybe a bit too close to home for me. But I’m ready for it.”
*A Brave Face has three Scottish dates: - Eden Court, Inverness on May 28; Dundee Rep Theatre on May 29 and Eastwood Park Theatre and Gallery Giffnock on May 30. For ticket information go to www.vamostheatre. co.uk