‘War Hero’ remembers the brave objector who held firm
Saturday, 18 April 2026
Michael Galvin has lived many creative lives — award‑winning playwright, long‑time actor, and one of New Zealand’s most recognisable television faces — but he keeps returning to one story: the quiet, uncompromising courage of conscientious objector Archibald Baxter.
His play War Hero, first read at a public playreading in Wellington on Anzac Day in 2009, is being staged for the first time in a Stagecraft Theatre Wellington production under the direction of Murray Lynch. For Galvin, the return of the work is less about revisiting the past than watching it come alive again.
“To be honest, most of my work on the play was over very early,” he says. After gathering research from multiple sources, he developed the script through workshops, rewrites and public readings with Auckland Theatre Company. “I ended up with what I (and people I trusted) thought was the best version of the play. And that version is the one Murray is now using for his production.
“The thing that draws me back to the play, or any play I’ve written, is that someone wants to stage it. You write these things because the idea connects strongly with you and you hope other people feel the same way. They kind of hang there in suspended animation until someone like Murray comes along and reanimates them.”
Baxter’s memoir We Will Not Cease is a stark, restrained account of a man who refused to fight in World War I and suffered brutal punishment as a result. Galvin says the book’s emotional economy shaped his approach to adaptation.
“I’m pretty sure I’m right in saying he recounts the facts of his ordeal and lets them speak for themselves. His insights into how he felt or even what he was thinking are sparse. So in the play I’m trying to do the same thing.”
He was determined not to impose his own interpretation. Instead, he focused on the twin questions that drive the drama: “Will he survive this horror … and how is he able to do it?” The answers, he says, were buried deeply in Baxter’s own words. “A few sentences that gave me license to answer those questions dramatically without adding anything.”
Lynch, who directed the original 2009 playreading, is - in Galvin’s view - the ideal person to bring the work back to the stage. “The play’s structure, with one central character and an ensemble playing the many figures Baxter encounters, was inspired by productions Lynch directed at Downstage when Galvin was a student at Toi Whakaari.
“During the rehearsal process he has had some minor suggested script changes and I’m extremely grateful for them – every one has been an improvement.”
At the heart of War Hero is a question that has gripped Galvin for years. “I could not understand how someone could be that brave. I could not invent someone that brave because I simply don’t understand it.” Baxter’s courage, he says, is what he hopes audiences will sit with. “He wasn’t especially strong or unnaturally immune to pain. He was just normal. But he did something extraordinary.”
Galvin’s wider body of work often explores the gap between who people think they are and who they really are. War Hero, he says, stands apart. “The central character is truly unafraid of the truth about himself and the world. But I guess he’s surrounded by people who aren’t.”
Against the backdrop of Anzac commemorations and global conflict - Galvin believes Baxter’s voice remains disturbingly current.
“Baxter was standing against a system where a handful of hugely wealthy and powerful old white men were deciding the fate of everyone else,” he says. “So perhaps the surprise for them may be how much of what Baxter and his fellow conscientious objectors say rings true today: about the systemic exploitation of the many by the few, even in democracies.”
Lynch said he had wanted to direct War Hero for some time, and was delighted to have the opportunity with Stagecraft Theatre.
“This play is based on a true story that should be better known. With war raging in other parts of the world right now, the play’s themes of having the courage to stand-up to state coercion and choose peace will resonate with many.
“This resonance is reflected by the calibre of the actors and crew who have been drawn to this project, which is all on a voluntary basis, as well as the support we have received from others in the community,” Lynch said.
He said he was especially drawn to the way Galvin had cleverly brought Baxter’s memoir to life in a script that delivered drama, poignancy, and even humour, making for a thought-provoking and memorable night of theatre.
Best known as an actor who has notably played Dr Chris Warner on Shortland Street since it first aired, Galvin has written several plays and in 2007 won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award.
War Hero, Stagecraft Theatre, Gryphon Theatre, May 6-16. Tickets: iticket