The Drover's Wife
This is the main character of the play. Much of the play features her reflecting on the past, detailing for the audience what life is really like for her. Lately, the drought and windstorms have killed the apple trees and left the property at serious risk of wildfire. They could die by fire any day, or starve. The play follows this woman's journey as she tracks and kills a poisonous viper that has come from the bush and threatens her family.
Jacky
Jacky is the daughter of the Drover's Wife, and she helps the wife to remember the days of her youth, before the deaths of her husband, her brother-in-law, before her miscarriage. Jacky is becoming paranoid these days, and although Tommy keeps a club nearby to protect her, Jacky is often annoyed by Tommy, and when he tosses and turns, the club touches her and freaks her out. She is the foil to Tommy and her mother in various ways.
Tommy
Tommy's safety is symbolic in the play. The mother wants to protect her boy from the threat of the poisonous snake, which the boy discovers in the opening of the play. The snake escapes into the felled apple trees, making a little home for itself there, just a few yards away from the family hut, which is easily infiltrated by animals. Tommy is scared to death of the snake, but when his mother finally fights the beast and defeats it, Tommy lives to see another day.
