Actor, young cast bond for battle drama

WAR STORY: AJ Southey (left), 15, Quintin Pope and Joel Charters, 17, during a rehearsal for Gallipoli play Once on Chunuk Bair,which opens on August 8 at the Carterton Events Centre. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

A leading actor in Carterton's upcoming World War I play Once on Chunuk Bair is enjoying the chance to perform alongside a new generation of up-and-coming young actors from his former college.

Quintin Pope, 30, a graduate of Kuranui College, plays the character of Lieutenant Harkness, a Kiwi soldier at Gallipoli, alongside fellow Limelight Theatre Company cast members and Kuranui students AJ Southey, 15, and Joel Charters, 17.

Mr Pope's love of acting began when he joined the theatre sports team at college, and he said it was good to see young actors like AJ and Joel working to perfect their parts.

"They are doing a fantastic job. It's good to see the next generation coming up and doing really, really well," he said.

"Drama is important for kids. You can become imaginative and get out of your own space and enjoy being someone else, enjoy delving into a character or being something entirely different, exploring different parts of who you are. It's all about being different."

Mr Pope credits his drama teachers at Kuranui College for encouraging him to get "out of my shell".

"It shaped me into the person I became ... I wouldn't have had lots of those experiences if I didn't have those strong teachers growing up."

Mr Pope, a council employee who is getting back into acting after the birth of his third child, said he could not imagine how the soldiers faced the thought of not returning home to their families.

"Imagine not to be able to come back to them - I can't even imagine understanding that. It's important that we know what these guys did and that sacrifice."

The play, which is based on the efforts of New Zealand's Wellington Battalion to capture and hold Chunuk Bair at Gallipoli, showed "just how bad these guys had it", he said.

"It's important for us to remember what these young guys went through. They gave every sacrifice so that we didn't have to."

The play also explored the idea of the birth of the "Kiwi" identity during the camaraderie of World War I.

"[Lieutenant Harkness] is a man who still believes in himself as a British man even though he's a New Zealander. He believes in the Empire and everything it can do for him."

"But by the end he realises the Empire is not going to help him and that he's going to have to be with his brothers."

The play, directed by Lynn Bushell and written by Maurice Shadbolt, opens on the 100th anniversary of the battle, August 8, and runs until August 15.

Standard tickets cost $24 and are available from Eventfinda, the Carterton Information Centre and the Masterton and Martinborough i-SITEs.