Playing a nurse taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II on stage is a role close to the heart of actress Maggie Kirkpatrick, who aspires to maintain the memory of those who served and died.

On the one hand Maggie Kirkpatrick loves her role in The Shoe Horn Sonata because it pays homage to the previous generation - and on the other because she has found it of enormous meaning to the next.

Maggie is currently on stage with Belinda Giblin at Glen Street Theatre in John Misto's award-winning two-hander which celebrates the friendship, survival and courage of two women imprisoned by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in 1942.

Bridie (played by Maggie) was an Australian Army nurse and Sheila (played by Belinda) was then a teenager. Fifty years after their wartime ordeal they meet again when asked to take part in a documentary.

Maggie's own father, Lieutenant Jim Downs, was killed in action in North Africa in August 1941 after the siege of Tobruk - only months after Maggie's January birth.

She takes up the tale: "Although Bridie and Sheila were in prison for three and a half years they have not met since - and the play reveals why - a very traumatic secret.

"One of the reasons I love playing women of this generation is because I really feel the need to pay homage to people who survived both the Great Depression and then World War II.

"I have an immense pride in my parents' generations and it's been wonderful to see how young people, especially school audiences who are studying the play for their HSC, are deeply affected.

"Another inspiration is the commitment of playwright John Misto, who first wrote the play for the 50th Anniversary of VJ (victory over Japan) Day in 1995 and who donated his prize money from that year's Australia Remembers National Play competition and the 1996 premier's Literary Award to the building of a memorial in Canberra to Australian nurses killed in war.

"I had the privelege of playing Bridie in that opening production; the following year in London; and last year on a NSW tour."

Words: Carol Payne
North Shore Times
March 2005
Thanks to Decker for the article.