Powerful personal play

By Rachel Eldred

DUSTED OFF, a powerful story of a veteran family, is on at The Regent on Sunday, July 16.

Brett Hunt’s compelling one-man show is the story of a son’s need to understand his father’s trauma.

Veteran dad, Frank ‘Frankie’ Hunt, was immortalised in the song ‘I Was Only 19’ after returning home from the Vietnam War.

“We often speak of the courage of men at war,” Brett said.

“But some soldiers from Vietnam were equally courageous when they returned and shared their experiences of their service.

“It was a generational shift. Servicemen and women no longer had to return from war and suffer in silence.”

A storyteller, actor and musician, Brett said that Dusted Off is an intimate and personal portrayal of how one family came together after tragedy to make sense of complex events.

“At its heart, it’s a celebration of the power of communication. It’s a story about what can happen when intergenerational trauma is finally given a voice.

“It honours both my parents. I wanted to give voice to women as much as I could. They are often the untold part of a wider story, especially around the repercussions of war.”

Frank Hunt enlisted in the army in 1967 and was ‘dusted off’ after he was seriously wounded in a mine explosion in Vietnam in 1969.

He was released from hospital 19 months later after many operations. He married his sweetheart Connie and the young couple went on to have four children in 17 months, including triplets, and at a time when little support was offered to returned servicemen.

Brett and his siblings grew up surrounded by veterans, their families and their stories.

Brett performs Dusted Off in schools around Australia as part of the history curriculum. He’s returning to the Northern Rivers for the first time after the pandemic to perform for Mt St Patrick’s College senior students and also at The Regent.

“It’s such an honour to return to the area and play to the public in this beautiful theatre,” he said.

“I believe in regional theatre. It’s vitally important that these venues contribute to the national conversations around Australian culture and identity.”

The natural disasters the area recently experienced moved Brett.

“The same camaraderie, community spirit, selflessness and courage are explored in my play,”he said.

“In that way, one man’s story becomes universal, a means for us to come together and experience what it is to move through catastrophic events in a powerful way.”

Dusted Off is told through music, soundscapes, sound effects and humour.

“It isn’t just a sad story. It’s a story of hope, a story of resilience, a story of how honest communication can bring us to a place where it’s possible to heal.”

Brett Hunt performs Dusted Off at 5pm at The Regent. Please book via the website: the-regent. com.au.