Fitters’ Workshop, Canberra
May 4, 2018

Like Ulysses Now on Wednesday night, the 17th concert at the Canberra International Music Festival, A Soldier’s Return, was a thoughtful and intelligent program, tapping deeply into the festival’s theme of Return, a century on from the end of the First World War.

A Soldier’s Return at Canberra International Music Festival. Photo © Peter Hislop

The first half of the concert explored the experiences of returned servicemen and women in a moving series of poems, written by participants from the Australian Defence Force Arts for Recovery, Resilience, Teamwork and Skills Program – a program for serving wounded, injured or ill members of the ADF – Bec Lally, Phil Courtney, Elissa Croker, Heath Schofield, Brad Mackay and Scott Grainger.

The seven poems, narrated by Paul English, explored concepts from identity (such as Lally’s powerful All for the price of your worthless self) to the experiences of Defence Force men and women when they return home (Croker’s deeply felt Six Human Emotions) and the vivid intensity of working in a combat zone (Mackay’s piercing My Kabul Job).

Between the poems, Artistic...