Cirrus@Austlit

In contrast to other war-related plays written and staged in Australia between 1914 and 1918, Reveille is concerned not with the situations and events overseas but in the obstacles facing Australia's falling enlistment. Most of the scenes are played out in the living room of Hazel Glen, a wheat farm located in the fictional district of Happy Valley and owned by the 'somewhat eccentric Australian farmer' John Westwood (Age 9 August 1917, p11). The action, which also takes place over one day, sees Smith depict 'a different kind of heroism through the story of a young man's battle to enlist despite opposition' (Cullen p54).

The protagonist, Joe Pemberton, is encouraged to enlist by a visiting recruitment sergeant but his uncle (Westwood) opposes him on the issue and uses a variety of tactics, including blackmail, to try and prevent his nephew from joining the war effort. Complicating matters is his love for the local school mistress, Nell Atherton, who has been avoiding him because he hasn't enlisted. When her father reappears after several years absence following a fraud scandal Joe' attempt to defy his uncle seem slim. The misunderstanding over the scandal is resolved, however, and Westwood's blackmail hold over Joe is subsequently rendered useless. A comic subplot involves the attempt by one character to try and pass the enlistment physical.

In her examination of the play Susan Cullen suggests that the theme of a farmer not wanting his kin to go to war because he is needed on the farm reflected the belief that country people were unwilling to let labour go' (p54). She further notes, too, that Smith appears to have deliberately avoided discussing the war itself, perhaps because Australians had become much more aware of the reality of war and were increasingly uninterested in fictional heroics.

Deserted by her mother as an infant, Pearl Grey has spent all her life on a cattle station in the Northern Territory. When the mother turns up unexpectedly the few characters who recognise her try to shield Pearl by keeping them apart. This situation causes some disruption to her romance with the hero of the play, however, as does a secondary story which involves an attempt to steal his gold. A review in the Argus suggested that the author's 'moralisings on the prospect of a white Australia' were the only low note in an otherwise beautifully staged show (27 December 1912, n. pag.)

Described as 'strangely old fashioned and domestic,' (Richard Fotheringham, Companion to Theatre in Australia 245), the play's principal characters include : a cattle king, a mine manager, a Port Essington pearler, a British Victoria Cross winner, an American geologist, a Japanese Pearl diver, a Chinese cook, and a comic boat captain, along with Aborigines and stockmen.

Melodrama in two acts, with prologue.

Advertised as a 'the thrilling and sensational drama - the story of an impersonation' (Argus 9 July 1909, p12), A Miner's Trust comprises a prologue (set in Australia) and the main body of the play, which is set largely in England. Several characters from the prologue reprise their roles in the following acts.

The story concerns a promise made by Alan Trengrove to his blind sweetheart Alice Medway that he would make his fortune so that they might one day marry. Ten years later he finally achieves his financial goal after having worked on the Australian goldfields, most of this time in partnership with his friend, Jack Howard. However, before he can return to England to fulfil his promise Trengrove is mortally wounded in a robbery attempt by a New Caledonian escapee, Gaston De Rougue. As he is dying Trengrove implores his mate to go to England in his stead, impersonate him (as the shock of his death would be too much for the poor girl), and then marry her. The Age theatre critic writes that the 'rest of the action takes place on British soil. The author trots out the somewhat villainous cousin and the elderly lawyer with which most of us are familiar, and he also gives us two or three graceful girls, who make perhaps as much as possible of the unremarkable dialogue. There is also a shipwreck scene, which furnishes a vivid piece of realism in the second act' (10 July 1909, p14).

The Argus critic also makes special note of the shipwreck sensation scene, recording: 'The great scene - and a great scene, chiefly by the mechanical and artistic departments, is necessary for every strenuous melodrama of today - is the wreck of an Australian liner, for which the entire breadth and depth of the stage is required' (10 July 1909, p20).

Jack Dunstan, a young selector has chosen a good block of land and sets about looking for a wife. His romance with Kate Brandon the daughter of a nearby farmer is tested, however, by interference from the villainess Leonard Ackroyd, son of a wealthy squatter. Other characters include a major from the Indian army on leave, Kate's awkward lovesick brother, a schoolmistress, a trooper and a 'blackfellow and his lubra' (Age 30 August 1909, p8).

The 'resume of scenes and incidents' is : Act 1. The Harvest in Full Swing ; The Backbone of the Country ; Home Life in the Great Australian Bush ; The Aboriginals ; An Indian Hawkers' Camp ; The Bunyip ; Dead Tree Swamp ; The Aboriginal Stops a Bullet. Act 2. An Important Clue ; Sunshine and Clouds ; The Picnic Among the Ferns ; A Dash for Liberty ; The Last Line of Defence ; The Battle of the Bridge ; The Bushwoman's Triumph. Act 3. The Milking Yard ; Dan as a Separator ; The Kyber Pass ; The Council of War ; The Horseshoe Gorge ; A Forest Giant ; The Great Tree Sensation ; The Bushwoman to the Rescue. Act 4. School In ; Nature Study ; Dan's Philosophy ; Trapped at Last ; The Arrest ; Turning the Tables ; The Bushwoman.