Blood and Bone.
It’s a play focused on the friendship between Greeks and Australians on the Cretan battlefields of World War II because, as Ms McNena says, “as people’s and nations we do better together”.
Like Mr Kyritsis, a veteran himself, the writer is concerned that many personal stories of brave soldiers are taken with them to the grave, resulting in heroic moments in history being overlooked by mainstream society.
Her work,
Blood and Bone, she said, began to take shape and form when she met veteran Ned (Eric) O’Leary, 89 years old at the time. Gripped by his story of what it was like at the Battle of Crete when hundreds of ANZAC troops took to the mountains to evade capture, Ms McNena sought others like him and also met Jack Gallagher and Allan Simpson.