Acrylic on canvas board

Signed on the front.

I worked as an actor in the famous Australian theme park Old Sydney Town in the 1980s, which is no longer operating and has fallen to ruin. Being a government funded tourist attraction when I worked there, the funds allocated to us were not great. The seamstress usually sewed the buttons on to our costumes with a single thread. Whether we played convicts or soldiers, we were constantly in fear that a button would fall off and reveal more than our inner monologues. This was especially tricky when it came to the britches we wore with the historically fashionable frontal flap. This is a portrait of the actor who played the fearsome Sergeant of the NSW Rum Corps. One particular day a button fell from his britches, and he had no idea that his modern-day underpants were on display for all to see. We dare not tell him and he wondered all morning why he was met uproarious laughter by not only his fellow actors but the general public, as he barked orders on the parade ground. He thought his witty ad libs were finally receiving the joy they deserved until a tourist pointed out his drawbridge was down. The scene behind the "Sarge" is the parade ground with the field artillery cannon that we used to fire twice a day. We used real gunpowder, so it was vital that the members of the NSW Rum Corps were all securely buttoned up to prevent powder burns.