Long Tan Directed By Brink Production

Directed by Chris Drummond, Brink Production’s latest performance, Long Tan, takes his audience directly amid the infamous battle of the Vietnam War in just under two hours of heart-warming companionship and immersive carnage. Set primarily on the stormy evening of August 16th, 1966, in a rubber plantation, the play follows Delta Company, an infantry battalion comprising of ten young and rigorously trained soldiers from the Royal Australian Regiment. In a nonlinear narrative, Drummond explores the battle from both sides between the Viet Cong and the Australians. Chiefly compiled from a list of interviews with Vietnam veterans and their families, Verity Laughton’s script showcases the battle in all its confronting intensity, overwhelming the audience with history through a powerful Verbatim style theatre, whilst exploring themes of warfare, mateship, discipline, family, and the

To emphasise the difference in atmosphere from the entire Delta Company in battle, warm orange spotlights were used during the monologues to centre the audience’s attention on the actors, whilst an emotive musical arrangement played to provoke an emotive response from the audience and creating an audible separation from the frenzy of the battle scenes. It was through the collaboration of these elements that Doug’s monologue truly provoked Drummond’s audience to feel both sympathy and despair, as the heart-warming story of his love, communicated from his honest and hopeful smile, became a doleful tragedy, as he broke the fourth wall and spoke directly to the audience of the woman he would never see again – the dialogue compiled from interviews with his girlfriend and thus capturing the miserable truth of The Battle of Long Tan and the families whose lives were indeed torn