I can't believe codswallop like this was actually popular with Australian theatre goers in the early 20th century, but apparently it was - so much so Raymond Longford filmed it in 1913. That's the only reason I read it - the film version doesn't exist but based on this it would have taken all Longford's skill to make it remotely watchable.
This is set in a Ruritania never never land where an impossibly perfect cavalry captain is adored by his men, and envied by a villainous rival. There's a beautiful princess who is going to be married off or forced to enter a convent under the terms of one of those unconvincing wills beloved in melodrama, plus some familiar ingredients: an easy woman who lusts after the hero and gets jealous when he's keen on the pure heroine; a comic underling who has a comic romance (three soldiers pursue a barkeep); two duels too many; a (yawn) revelation of the hero's parentage.
The two interesting things of it were the midnight wedding, where the hero and heroine are married in secret - which is a good idea, sexy and romantic, and I wish more had been made of it (eg them having to spend the night together or something). I also quite liked the ending where the hero told his dad, the Crown Prince, to go get stuffed. But it's very slim pickings for a long, unbelievable, repetitive play full of uninteresting characters.
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