BILL Wall has taken on a challenging role in the latest Kucom Theatre production, The One Day of the Year, but his own experience helps get him through.

In the play ex-serviceman Alf (Bill Wall) is appalled by the fact that his university student son Hughie (Connor Bashford), with posh North Shore girlfriend Jan (Sabrina Williams), has written a newspaper article portraying the 'real' celebration of the day: ex-servicemen passed out in alcoholic stupor.

Bill said while the play questioned the way Anzac Day was commemorated in the 1950s, it was more about a father-son relationship.

"My own father was cut of a similar cloth as he was from that time," Mr Wall said. "The most challenging thing is to make it (the role) as believable as possible. I want the audience to see Alf Cook as a real man and not so much as a character.

"At the start of the play he comes across as a whinging windbag... It's a very challenging role; there is a range of emotion from anger to intense sadness," Mr Wall said.

The play is on Friday and Saturday at Paxton's on the River, from 7.30pm.

Bookings through Try Booking www.trybooking.com/html/buytickets.shtml