At one point in Bill Posley’s show about his time in the US army, he tells us how, after failing to transition to postwar life, he was denied a PTSD diagnosis by the military. It is ironic that, in an age when the word “trauma” is so freely applied – in comedy shows as elsewhere – such a compelling claim (the one for which the term PTSD was invented, no less) should be denied. The point is well made that veterans are misunderstood and overlooked in American life – and Posley has plenty more evidence to back it up.
I was struck, as I watched The Day I Accidentally Went to War, by how rare narratives like this are, on the comedy stage at least – although maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that few ex-soldiers turn their experiences into solo performances for the arts centre crowd. So much the better for Posley, a writer on Apple TV’s Shrinking, whose account of his youth, his military training and service, and his troubled homecoming, can’t help but be interesting to audiences who less often hear these stories firsthand.
