Before the Dawn (play)

Before the Dawn is a 1915 Australian play by Jo Smith.

It was exclusively performed to raise money for Australian troops. The play was a comedy set on an outback station. Smith offered the play to JC Williamson's and Bert Bailey who rejected it but the play was popular.

The play raised over a thousand pounds for the Red Cross.

The Age said "it is a comedy drama, in which the farce element preponderates, or would do so if the author had not relied almost exclusively on his dialogue for the numerous laughs that encouraged the performers throughout the three acts."

According to Table Talk "As in all his plays, Mr. Smith has conceived a good foundation plot, though some of the methods of working it out are conventional and rather farcical."