Written and Adapted by Anthony Hill (from SOLDIER BOY, first published by Penguin Random House)
Presented by Theatre Works Melbourne
Director & Dramaturg Beng Oh
Assistant Director Jessica Fallico
Sound Designer and Composer Jack Burmeister
Set Designer Viv Hargreaves
Lighting Designer Sidney Younger
Costume Coordinator Adrienne Chisholm
Stage Manager Ella Thompson
Assistant Stage Manager Kade Lightfoot & Jade
Photographer Steven Mitchell Wright
Associate Secondment (Marketing and Producing) Arianna Marchiori
Cast Philip Hayden, Laura Iris Hill, Emily Joy, Marc Opitz, Ashlynn Parigi, Oliver Tapp, Charlie Veitch and Mark Yeates.
At just 14 years old James Charles Martin enlisted to fight for his country, not knowing he would never return home. SOLDIER BOY follows his journey from Melbourne to the battlefields of Gallipoli.
Adapted from Anthony Hill’s award-winning novel, SOLDIER BOY is centred on the end-of-life visions of 14-year-old Private James Martin as he lies alone and dying aboard the hospital ship, the Glenart Castle, just off the coast of Gallipoli on the evening of Monday 25 October 1915.
This visually and emotionally charged retelling honours Jim’s story while offering a fresh, contemporary perspective on the ANZAC legacy. It is a war play, but not as you imagine it. There are no feats of heroism or stirring charges over the top to a loud soundtrack. It has a human scale. It does not shrink from suffering but there’s love and humour, and it unfolds in unexpected ways. It stays true to Jim’s story and is all the better for it.
“This Soldier Boy is no dry history lesson. It’s a living, breathing elegy to lost youth, to courage in its most fragile form, and to the aching cost of sacrifice. In an age where the meaning of heroism is often blurred, this production restores its gravity with clarity and grace.” – Australian Arts Review
