Soldier Boy The Play:

Director Appointed, Auditions open

Great news. Noted Melbourne theatre director, Beng Oh has been appointed to direct the production of Soldier Boy at Theatre Works, St Kilda, Melbourne, for the season 20 June to 5 July.

Auditions were called to cast the eight-hander performances in April. There were over 100 applicants. Very encouraging.

Oliver Tapp, pictured with Laura Iris Hill, has been cast as Jim Martin, with Laura as his mother, Amelia. Rehearsals began 22 April. Producer is Dianne Toulson of Theatre Works. Other cast members are: Philip Hayden, Emily Joy, Callum MacKay, Ashlynn Parigi, Charlie Veitch, Mark Yeated. I'm looking forward enormously to seeing the play brought to life.

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Soldier Boy the Play:

Act 2, Scene 3: Wire Gully

Wire Gully above Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, as it is now.

Here, Jim Martin was sent to the trenches along the ridge line with "A" Company of the 21st Battalion when they landed in early September 1915, relieving the 8th Battalion.

It was named for the barbed wire entanglements laid to hinder Turkish attacks.

Today the gully is green with shrubs and trees. Then, it was pretty barren, laid waste by shell and gunfire. Note the war cemetery further down the gully.

Soldier Boy The Play:

Act 2, Scene 2: Anzac Cove

Myself at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, where Australian and New Zealand forces landed in the dawn of 25th April 1915 under fire. And where, just over four months later, 14-year-old James Martin went ashore with the 21st Battalion.

Even with modern beach protection works, the steepness of the terrain from the very water's edge is clear to see. Imagine climbing it carrying full battle gear and weapons.

Soldier Boy the play:

Act 2, Scene 2. The cliffs above Anzac Cove

Gallipoli, looking down from the heights at The Nek towards Anzac Cove.

It was up cliff paths like these that Jim Martin and the 21st Battalion had to climb partly at night after they landed on 7 September 1915, to the front line above Monash Valley on the second ridge.

Steep. But the third ridge was even higher and held by the Turkish Army under Kemal Ataturk. The Australian and New Zealand forces never broke through.

Looking down to Anzac Cove from Lone Pine. The third ridge rose above this one.

Soldier Boy The Play:

Act 1, Scene 2: School

This is the school in Manningtree Road, Glenferrie, Melbourne, attended by soldier boy Jim Martin for the last years of his education. Today, it is externally still much as he knew it.

Here, Jim played the school drum to march the pupils into class, and did his compulsory junior military cadet training before leaving to start work and senior cadets at the end of 1914. Four months later he had enlisted for Gallipoli.

"Boy soldiers everywhere," as his mother says in the play. No wonder so many of them tried to enlist for the Great War – and succeeded, often with such tragic results.

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Soldier Boy The Play:

Act 2, Scene 1: the troopship Southland

The first scene of Act 2 of Soldier Boy play: Under Fire. A newspaper drawing of the troopship Southland, torpedoed by a German submarine as it was carrying Jim Martin and troops of the 21st Battalion across the Mediterranean from Egypt to Gallipoli on 2 September 1915.

Some 30 men were killed – but the ship stayed afloat to wallow into Mudros Bay. Jim was rescued after spending four hours in the sea and then an open lifeboat. Under fire, indeed.

Soldier Boy The Play

Official Announcement: To be performed in June 

December 16 2024
 

Great night last evening when Theatre Works, St Kilda, Melbourne announced the 2025 program – including Soldier Boy, which will run for two weeks from 20 June.

Pictured here with my cousin, the actor Laura Iris Hill, who helped immeasurably with the final drafts of the play, looking at it especially from a theatrical point of view. Here's a link to the publicity shot with Laura dressed as the mother

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Soldier Boy The Play:

The Opening Scene

Here's the first scene in the story of the real-life soldier boy, 14-year-old Jim Martin, the youngest Australian Anzac: the house in Hawthorn where he grew up. 

Here is where he told the great lie and said he was 18, enlisted for Gallipoli – where he lasted for all of seven weeks before dying of typhoid.

He is lmost certainly the youngest Australian soldier to die in war. The exterior of the house is still pretty much as it was in 1914. Like the Glenferrie school he attended.

Soldier Boy the play:

Act 2, Scene 4. Anzac Cove Memorial, Gallipoli

 

The famous 1934 words of the Turkish General and first President, Kemal Ataturk, emblazoned near the landing place.

"You the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."

On Anzac Day – surely Australia's true National Day – such generous words cannot be spoken aloud without tears. The bonds with the Turkish people run deep. Turkey is the only former enemy to have a memorial on Anzac Parade, in Canberra. Lest we forget.