Who’s who in feminist-fired WWII dramedy 'While the Men Are Away'

A brilliant cast fronts this fun, sexy and smart show about The Women’s Land Army taking control.

While the Men Are Away: Kathleen (Phoebe Grainer), Esther (Jana Zvendeniuk), Gwen (Max McKenna), Frankie (Michela De Rossi)

Since a certain book showed up, women plucking apples have had a bad rap. Flash forward a few thousand years to the Australian homefront during World War II and funny, feisty and fabulous new show While the Men Are Away (WTMAA) finds orchard owner Franky Whitmore in a bit of a pickle. With her husband off to war (or is he, given farmers are exempt from enlisting?!?), there’s a steadily ripening crop with pickers few and far between, necessitating a hand-up from Sydneysiders recruited via the Women’s Land Army.

Stream free On Demand

While The Men Are Away

series • 

drama

MA15+

series • 

drama

MA15+

But that’s the least of her troubles. There’s an inconvenient truth stashed in the shed. Des (Benedict Harvie), her husband’s brother who owns the farm next door, is a total creep and he’s selling his land to the government to build a prisoner-of-war camp. Given that Franky’s an Italian immigrant and her home country is batting for the wrong team, the global conflagration shakes her relatively comfortable status in a small country town already side-eyeing her ‘exoticism’.

Frankie (Michela De Rossi) in While the Men Are Away.

This emotional rollercoaster, a feminist history re-do, meant WTMAA showrunners Kim Wilson, Monica Zanetti and Alexandra Burke had to find the perfect Franky. Auditioning several local actors who spoke Italian wasn’t quite working out. “That was our first port of call, but there was something still intrinsically Australian about that,” Wilson says of the hunt that eventually led to luminous Italian actor Michela De Rossi, who depicted Giuseppina Moltisanti in The Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark.

“She’d never been to Australia before, she’s terrified of spiders and we put her out in the bush in 40 degrees surrounded by monster insects constantly,” Wilson adds. “But she was an absolute trooper, and she had that sense of ‘the other’ that’s just so innate in her performance, adding authenticity.”

De Rossi’s casting is a stroke of genius in a remarkable show that paints between the lines of history to explore matriarchal power, queer joy and freshly emerging social identities while not burying the fact that this was a terrifying time of great tragedy. It’s just that life must go on.

Kathleen (Phoebe Grainer) in While the Men Are Away.

Stage actor and emerging playwright Phoebe Grainer, a Kuku Djungan, Muluridji, Wakaman, Tagalaka, Kunjen, Warrgamay and Yindinji woman from Far North Queensland, is also spectacular as Kathleen, a First Nations woman who, until recently, lived on the nearby Aboriginal Mission but was thrown out for hooking up with her boyfriend Murray (Shaka cook, Top End Wedding) in church (peak Eve behaviour).

Both Franky and Kathy are wrangling with an ‘otherness’ imposed on them. However, the former has more agency, underlined by an early scene in which Gwen and Esther complain about being paid half of what farmhand Robert (Matt Testro) gets, while Kathy is only presented with rations. Kathy and Franky share a beautiful bond, regardless, coming to a head in a low-key sublime moment of tenderness during a bathroom sequence later in the show that blurs the lines of what they mean to one another.

Robert (Matt Testro) in While the Men Are Away.

“There is a queerness in all these characters that just runs through the show,” Iggy & Ace director Zanetti says. “We had so many conversations about the specificity of moments like that. Of being able to look at two characters like Franky and Kathleen, who have a very different experience with their queerness, but that moment between two friends was so loaded because we know them so well by that point, and what those actors brought to that blurriness is really special.”

Kathy is just as handy when it comes to hard yakka as Robert, a conscientious objector who refuses to be shamed for his ethical stance against warfare and his resistance to overtly blokey conformity. “Robert represents the push against toxic masculinity and how men could be without having that hanging over them,” Wilson says. “We also talked a lot about bisexual characters and how they aren’t presented very often in a rounded sense on TV.”

Gwen (Max McKenna) in While the Men Are Away.

They’re joined by two wide-eyed Women’s Land Army recruits. There’s rich Sydneysider Gwen (musical theatre star Max McKenna), whose family expect them to excel academically and settle down. They accidentally walk in on Franky with another woman – “It’s not cheating on your husband if it’s not with another man” – which sparks an exploration not only of sexuality, but also gender identity for Gwen. “We saw Max in Jagged Little Pill and while we did audition others, it was Max all the way,” Burke says. “There was something about them that just felt so right.”

 

Gwen’s accompanied by Esther, played by Australian actor Jana Zvedeniuk of Ukrainian heritage, Esther’s family fled Poland after the Great War, sensing an ugly tide was turning against Jewish people, setting up a community newspaper in Sydney. “There was something really special about Jana and I love watching her on screen,” Burke adds.

Esther (Jana Zvendeniuk) in While the Men Are Away.

Shooting on location in Orange with a crew of predominantly queer women helped the cast bond and lean into WTMAA’s themes. “You can see that chemistry on screen,” Burke says.

Wilson agrees, “All we had to do was harness all that energy, shape it, steer it and put it into the work,” she says. “It did feel l like a music festival that went way longer than usual with not many bands and you’re kind of wandering around thinking, ‘Where is the main stage?’ All of us were pushed in a way that we hadn’t been before and so we all we had to do is just keep the faith, keep the love, treat each other with kindness and respect and support each other. Somehow we staggered through on bloody stumps to the finish line.”

 

While the Men Are Away premieres Wednesday 27 September at SBS On Demand. Double episodes air weekly on SBS 27 September from 8:30PM.

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