SoldierBoyplaySynopsis

Soldier Boy The Play

The Scene: Gallipoli heights looking down to the Aegean Sea

Synopsis

… The play is entirely portable and is not dependent on detailed scenery, stage sets or large performance spaces. Christopher Bantick.

Soldier Boy The Play follows very closely the circular structure of the novel : It ends when it begins, on board a hospital ship anchored off Gallipoli on 26 October, 1915. In real time it covers the 100 minutes from when the seriously ill Private Jim Martin is bought aboard the Glenart Castle at 5 pm to his death at 6:40 that evening.

The action follows the 14-year-old soldier’s dying thoughts – and the need to make clear the subliminal nature of the drama presents the staging with its most important innovative challenge. There is much scope for using multimedia sound and vision in the realisation.

Full theatrical effects for the ships and the trench at Wire Gully would be splendid, but much can also be done with a couple of tables and a few chairs. Anthony Hill production notes.

Here is complete synopsis of the play:

ACT ONE

Prologue. The play begins with a young voice singing It's a Long Way to Tipperary or some other World War I song. Anthony has written a Soldier Boy March (Appendix 1) which may be used instead. There is shellfire, an explosion, Jim and his mate Cec Hogan calling to each other. Then the sounds of boats in the water and a ship’s bell.

Scene 1. The hospital ship. Jim being examined by a Doctor and Matron Reddock. He is seriously ill with typhoid brought on by the filth of the Gallipoli battleground. ... after this summer ... our greatest enemy is disease. Flies. Not the Turks after all. Jim is given a morphine injection and settles down to rest, thinking of his family at home.

Scene 2. As the drug takes effect, Jim’s thoughts go back in time. He is now a 13-year-old schoolboy coming into breakfast at home in the family boarding house at Hawthorn, Melbourne. He’s anxious to get to school and compulsory military cadets, but mother Amelia makes him stay to eat his porridge. You’re a growing boy, dear … Only 13 … Your first pair of long strides … and already too short.

Scene 3. The schoolyard. Jim tells his sisters Mary and Annie about of the importance of military cadets – reinforced by headmaster Lieutenant-Colonel McLaren and the need to defend the Empire. The scene shifts as a newsboy relates the events leading up to the outbreak of war in August 1914, Read all about it! Australia to fight to the last man and the last shilling! The great excitement at home, men rushing to enlist.

Scene 4. The Martin family goes to the parade in Melbourne as the First Contingent leaves for the war. Jim wishes he could be among them, but his parents remind that he has to be 18 to join up ,and even then he needs their consent.

We hear about another boy, Rex Venables, who refuses to join cadets and is reported by the headmaster to the authorities. His story is a counterpoint to Jim throughout the play. We all have our beliefs. Got to respect that.

Scene 5. Transitional: Jim stays at school to the end of term – Christmas – Jim’s 14th birthday in early January when he can leave school and go to work. His Aunt Mary gives him a sheath knife, Every working man needs a good blade by his side, and Jim goes back with her to work in her hotel and on the farms around Maldon.

Scene 6. Jim speaks of his love of the outdoor life, senior cadets and his fondness for his aunt. It’s a grand life. A little rabbiting or fishing for fun. Swim in the river... But Aunt Mary arrives with a letter from home saying that father Charlie is going to enlist. and Jim is needed back there.

Scene 7. When Jim arrives, Charlie tells him he has been knocked back by the army because he’s too old and unfit. Never mind dad, I’ll go instead! Amelia and Charlie desperately try to stop him, But Jim issues an ultimatum. If you sign a consent letter I’ll write to you… But if you don’t I’ll run away, join up under another name, and you won’t hear from me again.

It's emotional blackmail, but like many parents at the time Charlie and Amelia give way. They sign a consent letter. Do you want to lose our son right here and now! He could have done it. No birth certificate was required, just a letter. And a signature is easily forged.

Scene 8. Follows Jim’s progress as he enters army training: the recruitment office – early days at Broadmeadows camp where he meets his friend Cec Hogan – the rifle range, bayonet practice - excitement at the news of the Gallipoli landing – Seymour, and final training before embarkation..

Scene 9. Jim’s last night at home and a farewell party Amelia is afraid of what might happen, but Jim reassures her. I’ll be all right … and I’ve made over some of my pay to you. AMELIA: It’s not money I want, Jim, it’s you I care about.

Scene 10. In the early dawn Jim comes down and collects his kit bag. Silently, Amelia and Charlie enter to make their farewells, Amelia clinging to her son.

Scene 11. The wharf. The soldiers march aboard the troopship Berrima. Charlie and Amelia cheer, cry Goodbye! and throw paper streamers, which break as the ship slowly leaves the wharf and heads down the bay. All I have left is a torn piece of paper streamer, our boy's last link with Home.

The Act ends back with Jim on the hospital ship. Mum? Mum? Are you still there…?

Home Front: The boarding house in Hawthorn.

ACT TWO

Scene 1. Hawthorn. Charlie and Amelia have just had a letter from Jim in Egypt saying his battalion is packing up and getting ready to embark on the voyage to Mudros, and from there to Gallipoli. Strangely, while they have received several letters from Jim, he has so far not received any from the family at home. Charlie reassures Amelia that the letters will be getting through by now. It’s the army! Bound to be. And we know what shipping can be like in war time.

Scene 2. On board the troopship Southland, Jim and Cec deepen their friendship. Cec reads from a book of Burns poems his mother gave him, hoping they’d inspire him in battle. Jim shows his sheath knife, thinking that would be more use on Gallipoli. Cut an enemy throat! Suddenly the ship is hit by a German torpedo, and there are fears it will sink. In a scene of intense action the crew begin to panic, the disciplined soldiers line up to board the lifeboats. But the cables are jamming in the davits and tipping the men into the sea. Which is what happens to Jim and his mates.

Scene 3. Back home, Amelia has just sent received some presents from Jim delivered by a friend, Albert, another under-age soldier who has been found out by the army and sent home. So many camels! She hopes her boy is having a pleasant voyage after the hard work in Egypt.

Scene 4. Jim is alone in the Mediterranean Sea trying to stay afloat, worrying how long he has been there, calling on God, wondering if he'll be rescued. Mum … It’s not like the river at Toke. Sharks … thirsty … water … and I can’t drink none of it. At last a life boat with his Sergeant, Cec and other soldiers picks him up.

Scene 5. The first of several imaginary conversations between Jim and Amelia. Jim writes home about the rescue, his re-equipment, the message of support from General Birdwood. Amelia worries about him spending four hours in the water, and tells how young Rex Venables has been taken to court by the police for refusing cadet training. Jim’s letter ends with the news that they are being ferried across to Gallipoli that night.

Scene 6. in the darkness and half light of early Dawn, the troops come ashore at Anzac Cove and begin the steep climb up Monash Valley to the trenches on the second ridge.

Scene 7. Jim’s Company reaches the Wire Gully sector as a relief party. They meet a veteran who describes the “joys” of Gallipoli: the periscope rifle, Turkish enemy only 20 yards away, the constant threat of bombs, shellfire and snipers, water rations and the strange camaraderie that's developed between the two sides. You can’t really hate Johnny Turk. It’s his country. He’s doing it as tough as we are. Brave too. And they share the same onslaught of disease borne by flies and rats in the summer heat from unburied bodies and the open sullage pits.

Scene 8. One month later. Jim is writing home saying they are getting used to life in the trenches, although it’s very quiet where we are ... so we are not seeing much of the fun. Amelia continues her letter-writing to Jim, telling him that Rex Venables has been sent into military detention at Queenscliff. If desired, her letters may drop from the flies onto the stage and trampled on during the action, suggesting that he never received them.

Scene 9. The first of several scenes showing Jim and his mates at Gallipoli. It's been very quiet. Not what we signed up for, Sarge. Haven't fired a shot all day. Sergeant agrees, but as a diversion they have a “demonstration” that night. Five rounds rapid fire. Is that all?

Scene 10. Another imaginary conversation through letters. Amelia tells Jim about school, his sisters, boarders and the hens, while Jim speaks of the weather and the water which has to be brought up in kerosene tins from the beach. There's an incident where a group of soldiers playing Two-Up are hit by a shell and killed. There's nowhere safe on Gallipoli. Jim wonders if he should tell his mother that, decides against it as she’ll worry. Instead ... I'm doing splendid over here. At the same time Amelia decides not to tell Jim about Rex Venables being punished as it would upset him. Letters rarely reflect the whole truth. Reality hits when there's another big mail delivery but nothing for Jim. It's very disheartening to see other men getting lots of letters, Mum, and me not even getting one ... Have you forgotten about me? Don't you care...? He starts another letter about a Turkish soldier who tried to surrender the previous night.

Scene 11. We see the Turkish soldier crawl to the edge of the trench waving a scrap of white cloth. Halt! from a German officer, but the soldier keeps coming and is shot in the back. Jim helps to lift him down and carry him with the Sergeant to the rear. The Turkish soldier tries to speak but a knot in his scarf is choking him. Jim uses his sheath knife to cut – not an enemy throat as he boasted – but the knot, enabling the enemy to speak his dying words – probably his wife and child. Jim wonders who he was, but the Sergeant doesn't know. Just another nameless casualty of war. Except that he isn't. Somebody loved him. As Jim fears the absence of letters means the family no longer love him.

Scene 12. The soldiers receive food parcels from Lady Ferguson. Jim is unable to eat his two sardines. Bit oily. On me tummy. He has begun to cough, another intimation that he is beginning to sicken. The next day Jim is unable to focus properly in the trench, but refuses to go to sick parade.

Scene 13. Night. Jim is lying wrapped in a blanket by the open-air latrines. He has been vomiting and has developed full blown dysentery with the typhoid. His mate Cec pleads with Jim to see the doctors, but he refuses. Go away! Just leave me alone! But turning to his mother he confesses. I've lost a lot of weight ... They’d see I'm just a kid and send me home in disgrace. And Jim wonders out loud if his parents still love him? Amelia gets a premonition that all is not well with Jim.

Scene 14. A foggy day in the trench. Jim continues the pretence that he is all right and takes over the periscope rifle. But he can barely hold it and begins to collapse. Is he hit? No, sarge, he's crook. Cec calls for the stretcher bearers to take Jim down to the beach casualty station.

Scene 15. The same as Act 1, Scene 1. Jim is lying on the stretcher in the hospital ship. He is near death, and utters his last words. Write soon ... I've heard nothing since ... Water ... Please ... God ... Love me...? Mum... He dies, the heartbeat stops, and the light contracts into darkness and silence. Pause. Then a door-knocker and a cry from Amelia. No!

Scene 16. Matron Reddock, Cec and Sergeant Coates read from the letters of condolence they sent to the Martin family after Jim's death. You must, I am sure, feel very proud of him for so nobly coming forward to fight for his country...

Scene 17. Amelia and Charlie try to come to terms with Jim's death. It begins with despair and the need for understanding. Why, Charlie ...? Only fourteen? Charlie seeks consolation in knowing Jim answered his country's call and was courageous to the end. Amelia finds no pride but only shame in not telling the authorities. We should have ... stuck to our own guns as good parents. But when Charlie points out that Amelia was afraid of losing their son if they did, the conversation soon turns to bitter recriminations and blame against each other (and not a little guilt). We're tearing ourselves apart ... we need each other more than ever. But it's not enough. I'm not sure I'll need you ever again Charlie Martin. I've nothing to give you but tears.

The play ends with Cec reading an elegy for his dead friend from the book of Robert Burns poems – not the battle cry he once thought – and Jim's distant echo Write soon ... I have heard nothing...

Epilogue. As it happened, Charlie and Amelia separated a few years after the Great War ended, such was the strain between them, as an Army Officer narrates in the Epilogue. He tells the audience what in real life happened to each of the main characters. Anthony notes that the Epilogue may be omitted in performance. But for interested members of the audience who do not know the story, it was felt better to do it this way – or by words on a screen at the end – rather than give advance notice by way of a programme note.

Entr'acte: Glenferrie School yard