The officers and men of almost every regiment performed farces and melodramas with titles such as "Round the Corner", "Little Tiddlekins" and "Fish Out of Water." Edwin George Rundle described one performance in his autobiography, A Soldier's Life: Being the Personal reminiscences of Edwin G. Rundle... (Toronto: William Briggs, 1909):
No ladies took part. The characters were all male, John Smith taking the part of Portia, and his brother that of Shylock So well did it turn out we were obliged, by special request, to repeat it the following night, which was again a decided success.
This performance of scenes from The Merchant of Venice in Halifax in 1864 raised several hundred dollars. Profits from such performances usually went to a civic charity or a regimental concern such as a fund for a soldier's widow to help her and the children move back to England. In these two pencil and watercolour drawings artist James Cumming Clarke has captured two of his own theatrical roles: John James Johnstone in "Two Bonnycastles" and Mrs. Bouncer in "Box and Cox".
Courtesy: Public Archives of Canada (C-29772 and C-29768)
