A play based on the exploits of WWI leader General Harold "Pompey" Elliott will return to Ballarat next month after it made its world premiere in the city last June.
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Playwright Meg McNena wrote Mud and Blood about the sacrifices of men and women a century ago at war and at home, through the lens of Elliott.
"Set from 1914 to 1921 in battle and at home, Pompey Elliott inspires as husband, father, general, Anzac veteran and leader," Ms McNena said.
"He and a soldier's mother deal with his vow to look after his boys in war as if they were his own. Potent themes of family, duty, loyalty, trauma, betrayal, legacy and grief vividly unfold for the newly declared nation of Australia."
The men of Elliott's 7th Batallion came from Melbourne and central Victoria.
Mud and Blood debuted in Ballarat because General Elliott, dubbed Pompey after a Carlton footballer of the time, attended school at Ballarat College (now Ballarat Clarendon College), where one of the houses is named Elliott in his honour.
Mayor Samantha McIntosh invited the production back to Ballarat.
"It would be wonderful for our community if the play could be performed again to portray to a younger audience the significance of WWI and the impact it had on our local community," she said.
Mud and Blood will be staged at Ballarat Mechanics Institute at 12.30pm and 7pm on May 17. Historian and Pompey Elliott biographer Ross McMullin will give a half hour talk after the 12.30 matinee.
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