The Return: Research-Based Theater With and for Ex-Military Personnel Experiencing Posttraumatic Stress

Abstract

This article discusses The Return, a research-based theater project about posttraumatic stress, performed by actors and ex-military personnel. The objective of the project was to address the stigma of mental health in the military and encourage psychological help-seeking in the veteran and military population. The play combined verbatim text and dramaturgical re-authoring of material to explore the lived realities of mental health experiences of posttraumatic stress (PTS) in the military. Part of the ethical entanglements encountered lay in calibrating the risk–safety nexus, specifically in relation to questions of authenticity, narrative structure, decisions relating to casting actors and ex-military personnel, and how to negotiate the performance of a personal story of trauma. The article argues that performance is innately a process governed by “edgework” as much as safety, and therefore part of the ethical entanglement lies in the negotiations between risky aesthetics, “safe” spaces, and frameworks that enable critical vulnerability.