Soho Theatre, Dean St, London W1 -until 13th September 2025
Reviewed by Phil Brown
4****
Bill Posley an American comedian originally from Springfield, Mass positively oozes charisma and performing talent. He’s a natural raconteur with a delightful sense of fun and brilliant, slightly camp, punch line delivery.
Posley’s highly original, deeply personal 1½ hour one man show The Day I Accidentally Went to War (writer – Bill Posley, director Bente Engelstoft)takes you through his formative experiences growing up in a somewhat dysfunctional mixed race family onto his first real adult venture in the National Guard and his subsequent deployment and demobililization (with a z) issues. It’s intensely honest, poignant and mostly riveting, taking you on an extreme roller coaster ride of emotions until veering occasionally into rather earnest #bekind, political territory before a very strong finish. It’s intelligent, and witty, with moments of sublime humour but the occasional lull. This could become a truly outstanding 1 hour show with some editing.
For a relatively slight guy, Posley has a powerful stage presence possibly helped by the camo fatigues. He welcomes the audience in the guise of a drill sergeant about to take us through basic training. And he adopts the demeanour of an instructor giving a presentation backed up by some very slick visual aids. All in a well paced fun way!
To back up a bit – the key reason Posley ends up in the military in the first place comes down to his family’s bankruptcy and his decision to finance a post high school college education by joining the army. His show is rich with relevant facts and statistics, one being there are three organisations in the US army – the regular army (full time), the reserves (federal controlled, part time) and the national guard (state controlled, part time). Posley elects to join the National Guard as the least worst option. But, all three units undergo the exact same basic training and that’s where we start…
Cue some light audience participation – we all get lapel stickers, a squad number to be barked on demand and a battle buddy, but not someone we arrived with. He teaches us to say “hoo-rah” which is used to express enthusiasm, agreement, or camaraderie. At one point, to illustrate real teamwork with a diverse collection of people and abilities, we are given 45 seconds to pass a quarter coin hand to hand through the entire audience. We succeeded!
It turns out, despite the diet, Posley loved basic training which I suspect only someone aged 17 at the time can, although he puts it down to the fierce conditioning provided by a scary father. His passing out parade then happens to be on the same day as 9/11 but he settles into college life believing there is little chance of being called up to fight in the subsequent Middle Eastern wars. As Posley himself might say – wrong!
At around the age of 19 he is mobilized and prepared for desert warfare on the Canadian border in winter leading to the tragic death of a best buddy – an example of how the confusion of war extends beyond the battlefield.
Astonishingly around 50% of US forces on duty overseas are from the reserves or national guard – part time soldiers. Posley does a 15 month tour in a 12 man Reconnaissance Recovery team which he likens to the equivalent of the RAC in the apocalypse. His recollections take a serious turn as he starts to question the basis of the war and his country’s actions there. It gets darker when he talks about the psychological impact of war on his return – the lack of respect for vets and understanding of their needs.
One of the best moments of this show comes right at the end when Posley asks for a show of hands by anyone who is or has ever been…..an asshole! Wow, we weren’t expecting that. The audience reacted with commendable honesty. According to Posley, admitting being an asshole means you’re willing to admit you’re wrong. “Why can’t we sit down across from each other as a couple of assholes. That’s the country I want to live in…”
By my maths, it is around 20 years since the Iraq war when Bill Posley was deployed. Even though that’s a lot of personal development time, you would be forgiven for not recognising the man on stage as the individual he portrayed in this story. How much of the apparent transformation is down to his experiences in the National Guard is clearly hard to tell but I have to say, he’s a very long way from the unfit, underachieving youth he once was.
He is without question a very fine writer and performer and It would be fascinating to know how he has gone from war damaged veteran to finding his true calling on stage.