Cirrus@Austlit

Described as a 'new minstrel burlesque sensational play,' A Plucky Youth satirises several Drury Lane sensational dramas - G.R. Sims's Lights O' London, (1881), and two Augustus Harris works, Youth (1881 with P. J. Meritt and H. Pettit) and Pluck (1882 with H. Pettit). Pluck was then being staged by Bland Holt at Sydney's Theatre Royal under the auspices of Williamson Garner and Musgrove. It also starred Alfred Dampier), while George Rignold had been presenting Youth in Australia since January 1882. Horace Bent's burlesque is presented in a series of seven tableaux:

1. The Mud-Banker's Manor;

2. Unknown;

3. Streets O' Sydney;

4. As Before;

5. Railway Disaster;

6. Once More; and

7. Wrecked in the Ocean.

The characters are Harold Vermifuge (the Visitor's Youth), Moses Aaron Levis Marks (a Financier), Griffin Greatmouth (Typical Villain), Stephen Stokes (the manager of a Mud-bank), Flo Stokes (his daughter), Mrs Stokes (his wife), The Major, The Colonel, and a Policeman.