Remembering masculinities in the theatre of war

Abstract

Memories of war are prevalent in Australian theatrical production after the second world war. From Sumner Locke Elliot's recollections of war-time homosociality in Rusty Bugles and Russell Braddon's depiction of Australian prisoners-of-war in Naked Island, to critical reflections on war memorialisation and suburban repatriation in Alan Seymour's The One Day Of The Year and Patrick White's The Season At Sarsaparilla, an array of post-war theatrical productions sought to articulate men's experiences at war and back home. ... This article explores the propagation of gender anxieties in performance during the post-war period of suburban expansion. In contrast with more recent productions which have sought to celebrate the survival, ingenuity and achievements of Australian men at war, productions from the post-war period were less overtly nationalist and less overtly masculinist. Remembering men's war-time experiences of disarticulation from the comforts of suburban domesticity and heterosexual desire, post-war productions celebrated less the heroism of men at war than the nostalgia of their returning home.