Project
The Maralinga Theatre Project, leading to the play Half a Life , was initiated in partnership with the Australian Nuclear Veterans Association. As a result of the nuclear tests in the 1950s and 60s, many veterans from the tests sought an opportunity to communicate their story across generations and to encourage others to tell their stories. These veterans saw the production of a play as a means of maintaining a network of contact with veterans now dispersed across the country and as a way of supporting their battle for compensation. In partnership with the University of New South Wales, a verbatim play was devised using in-depth interviews with veterans of the nuclear test site by university researchers. These interviews were painstakingly transcribed and edited into significant excerpts, which were then organised and arranged into a script which made use of dramatic through-lines and themes.
After the initial stages, the decision was made to expand the scope of the project to include British veterans' stories. The final version of the piece includes the stories of British veterans who were also at the test site, as they made up a significant number of the population of soldiers who were affected by the tests. Meanwhile, other Australian arts organisations have developed the Aboriginal stories of the tests, in visual arts projects, and in a performance titled Napartji Napartji developed by Big hART (See: http://www.ngapartji.org/content/view/13/31/). These projects, running parallel with Half a Life constitute a wave of interest from the arts community in the failure of official processes to deliver justice.
The plot of the piece follows veterans as they first leave their families and loved ones in Australia and the UK and the specific procedures of signing up for a 'secret' mission. The story moves on to explore the setting of the tests and the experience of being hit by a nuclear blast. The soldiers narrate their cleaning duties after tests in light cotton gear and the ways in which their nuclear exposure was monitored by scientists in full protective clothing. Finally, the play follows veterans back into civilian life and documents the various illnesses and developmental problems experienced by veterans and their families as well as the harrowing task of trying to claim compensation from the British and Australian governments.
