Humorist probes nation's soul

Rob Mokaraka (left) and Jamie McCaskill in King & Country.

Dave Armstrong tickles the nation's funnybone as one of the writers for The Semisis, Skitz, Spin Doctors, Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby and the award-winning play Niu Sila.

But now he's plucking the heartstrings with his musical theatre production King and Country, which has its Auckland premiere tonight at the Going West Books and Writers Festival.

King and Country captures the drama, the music and, says Armstrong, the sometimes tragic comedy of World War I from the point of view of soldiers, nurses and New Zealand citizens. "You write to the genre," Armstrong says. "The stories I discovered for King and Country were beautiful and tragic and sometimes had their funny moments.

"For example, one of the officers says to the troops, 'Right men, when you get overseas don't do anything your mothers will disapprove of.' Or there's a moment when soldiers tell their commanding officer there's no water to wash the artillery shells with so he says to urinate on them.

"At the beginning of the war, when everybody thought it would be over in three weeks and the boys would be back for Christmas, the letters, diary entries and music were gung-ho ... but as things progressed, and it obviously wasn't going to end so quickly, they became sadder."

Armstrong wrote the play after reading poems by his grandfather, Albert George Turner, who wrote them on the Western Front before being wounded and shipped home.

Bert tried to tell his grandson about life in the trenches but the boy found war stories tedious.

"Bert died when I was 12. I wish I'd listened to his stories more attentively."

Many hours of research followed, with Bert's poems the starting point for a deeper exploration of the subject.

King and Country features the fictional stories of four soldiers, two Maori and two Pakeha, their commanding officer and a Red Cross nurse.

All are based on diaries, letters, poems and music of World War I. The subject fascinates Armstrong. Nearly two years after he finished writing King and Country, he is reading a new book about Passchendaele, the Western Front battle that claimed the lives of so many New Zealanders.

Armstrong, a trumpet player, wanted King and Country to reflect the music of the day so he contacted Archives NZ to see if there was any sheet music of New Zealand pieces composed during World War I.

A search by archives director David Dells turned up a staggering 500, which Armstrong whittled down to 20.

"I'm a trumpet player and I love brass bands. They really are part of New Zealand. Any town you go to has a brass band and in World War I they played a big part. And the men on the ships heading off to war would form bands and play to entertain their fellow troops."

King and Country has done the New Zealand arts festival circuit and Armstrong always insists that a local brass band plays in the production.

For the Going West festival, Waitakere City Brass will do the honours, while the cast includes Jamie McCaskill, Jason Hood, Nick Dunbar, Dena Kennedy, Craig Geenty and Rob Mokaraka.

* What: King and Country

* Where and when: Glen Eden Playhouse Theatre, 15 Glendale Rd, Glen Eden; Aug 30-Sep 2, 8pm, and Sat 2pm matinee

* On the web: www.goingwest.co.nz